Nanoscale Materials May Exhibit Novel Ductility
The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) recently reported on findings by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that nanoscale materials may exhibit novel ductility not exhibited by their bulk counterparts. For example, CSM explains that silica is normally brittle in its bulk form, but became "as ductile as gold at the nanoscale" in NIST studies. Evidently particle size plays an important role in ductility: "the smaller particles in the material aggregate, the more ductile the material becomes."
