Modern nanoindentation devices are capable of dynamic experimentations, which allow us to exploit instrumented hardness tests extensively. Beside the assets of recording mechanical properties continuously over displacement, there are ongoing debates whether the superimposed force alters the material's hardness. We will show for a broad range of materials that significant hardness differences are noted between dynamic and static tests, even for large displacements. Those mainly result from a changing indentation strain-rate during the hold segment at peak load. This fact must be implicitly considered in studies using static indentation tests to guarantee comparability of obtained nanoindentation hardness values and derived quantities.

We used a novel diffraction-based method to extract the local, atomic-level elastic strain in nanoscale amorphous TiAl films during transmission electron microscopy deformation, while simultaneously measuring the macroscopic strain. The complementary strain measurements revealed significant anelastic deformation, which was independently confirmed by strain rate experiments. Furthermore, the distribution of first nearest-neighbor distances became narrower during loading and permanent changes were observed in the atomic structure upon unloading, even in the absence of macroscopic plasticity. The results demonstrate the capability of electron diffraction to probe structural rearrangements and decouple elastic and anelastic deformation in metallic glasses.

The suitability of high-strength ultrafine and nanocrystalline materials processed by severe plastic deformation methods and aimed to be used for structural applications will strongly depend on their resistance against crack growth. In this contribution some general available findings on the damage tolerance of this material class will be summarized. Particularly, the occurrence of a pronounced fracture anisotropy will be in the center of discussion. In addition, the great potential of this generated anisotropy to obtain high-strength materials with exceptionally high fracture toughness in specific loading and crack growth directions will be enlightened. Severely plastically deformed materials are reviewed in light of their damage tolerance. The frequently observed toughness anisotropy allows unprecedented fracture toughness - strength combinations.

The study of electromigration (EM) in metallisations for flexible thin film systems has not been a major concern due to low applied current densities in today's flexible electronic devices. However, the trend towards smaller and more powerful devices demands increasing current densities for future applications, making EM a reliability matter. This work investigates EM in 50 nm Au thin films with a 10 nm Cr adhesion layer on a flexible polyimide substrate at high current densities. Results indicate that EM does occur and could be used as a self-healing mechanism for flexible electronics.

Herein, a facile strategy was firstly developed to synthesize ellipsoidal mesoporous silica nanomaterials (MSNs) with well-ordered parallel channels along the short axis. A miniaturized microfluidic device with spiral-shaped channels was then chosen as a straightforward and general platform to produce the corresponding hollow counterparts of MSNs under mild conditions. Such reaction process carried out in a microfluidic system was further demonstrated to be more rapid and efficient than conventional batch method under equivalent experimental conditions. The evolution of hollow structure can be well-tuned by flow rates (, etching time), providing new paradigm for rational design and engineering of anisotropic nanostructures.

Studies since 2004 have shown that the cytocompatibility of ultrafine grain (UG) commercial purity (CP) titanium exceeds that of coarse grain (CG) CP titanium (Ti) by 30% to 20-fold. To isolate the factors affecting this large reported variability of CP titanium's cytocompatibility, discs of UG and CG titanium were fabricated with controlled texture and roughness. The discs were seeded with MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblastic cells and cultured for 72 h. The proliferation of cells on polished UG-Ti exceeded unpolished CG-Ti 3.04-fold. Cell proliferation was found to correlate with a new biophysical parameter, the average grain boundary length per surface-attached cell.