title: Size-dependent mechanical properties of PVA nanofibers reduced via air plasma treatment.
abstract: Organic nanowires/fibers have great potential in applications such as organic electronics and soft electronic techniques. Therefore investigation of their mechanical performance is of importance. The Young's modulus of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers was analyzed by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) methods. Air plasma treatment was used to reduce the nanofibers to different sizes. Size-dependent mechanical properties of PVA nanofibers were studied and revealed that the Young's modulus increased dramatically when the scales became very small (<80 nm).
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Xuefeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jingyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xiaobing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Xingyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Dapeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu