title: Reliable and cost effective design of intermetallic Ni2Si nanowires and direct characterization of its mechanical properties.
abstract: We report that a single crystal Ni2Si nanowire (NW) of intermetallic compound can be reliably designed using simple three-step processes: casting a ternary Cu-Ni-Si alloy, nucleate and growth of Ni2Si NWs as embedded in the alloy matrix via designing discontinuous precipitation (DP) of Ni2Si nanoparticles and thermal aging, and finally chemical etching to decouple the Ni2Si NWs from the alloy matrix. By direct application of uniaxial tensile tests to the Ni2Si NW we characterize its mechanical properties, which were rarely reported in previous literatures. Using integrated studies of first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) we accurately validate the experimental measurements. Our results indicate that our simple three-step method enables to design brittle Ni2Si NW with high tensile strength of 3.0 GPa and elastic modulus of 60.6 GPa. We propose that the systematic methodology pursued in this paper significantly contributes to opening innovative processes to design various kinds of low dimensional nanomaterials leading to advancement of frontiers in nanotechnology and related industry sectors.
authors.affiliation: Structural Materials Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon 642-831, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung Zeon
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, DGIST, Daegu, 0711-873, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Joonhee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Structural Materials Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon 642-831, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Dae
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Structural Materials Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon 642-831, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Si-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Gangwon Regional Division, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Gangneung 210-340, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung Giun
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon 641-773, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jehyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwangho
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Hwan
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byungchan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han