AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Manufacturing Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session MS+PS+TF-ThA

Paper MS+PS+TF-ThA11
Mechanistic Understanding of Anomalous Scaling Law of Mechanical Properties of Nano-Cellulose Paper

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 5:40 pm, Room 302

Session: Functionalization  of Paper and Textiles & Their Applications
Presenter: Teng Li, University of Maryland, College Park
Authors: S. Zhu, University of Maryland, College Park
Z. Jia, University of Maryland, College Park
Y. Li, University of Maryland, College Park
Z. Fang, University of Maryland, College Park
S. Parvinian, University of Maryland, College Park
N.J. Weadock, University of Maryland, College Park
O. Vaaland, University of Maryland, College Park
Y.C. Chen, University of Maryland, College Park
L.B. Hu, University of Maryland, College Park
T. Li, University of Maryland, College Park
Correspondent: Click to Email
The quest of both strength and toughness is perpetual in advanced material design; unfortunately, these two mechanical properties are generally mutually exclusive. A general and feasible mechanism to address the conflict of strength vs. toughness still remains elusive. Here we demonstrate an anomalous but highly desirable scaling law of the mechanical properties of cellulose nanopaper: both its strength and toughness increase simultaneously
(40 & 130 times, respectively) as the size of the constituent cellulose fibers decreases (from 
a diameter of 27 microns to 10 nm). Our theoretical mechanics modeling and molecular dynamics simulations reveal the underlying mechanistic understanding of such an anomalous scaling law. These stimulating results suggest a fundamental bottom-up strategy generally applicable for other material building blocks, and thus hold the promising potential toward a new scaling law: the smaller, the stronger AND the tougher. There are abundant opportunities to utilize the fundamental bottom-up strategy to design a novel class of functional materials that are both strong and tough.