Supplementary material for “Strong strain rate effect on the plasticity of
amorphous silica nanowires”
Yonghai Yue1a), Kun Zheng2
1
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of
Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Energy Materials and
Devices, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191,
PR China
2
Institute of Microstructure and Property of Advanced Materials, Beijing University
of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China
a)
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-Mails: yueyonghai@buaa.edu.cn
1
1. Tensile testprocedures and time schedules
Tensile test procedures and time schedules used for the experiment in Fig. 1 was
given in Table S1 below.
Table S1
An example process of tensile experiments in TEM
Action
Time
Time Duration (s)
Note
00:00:00
36
Take pictures and started recording
Turn off e-beam
00:00:36
277
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:05:13
72
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:06:25
298
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:11:23
28
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:11:51
278
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:16:29
58
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:17:27
511
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:25:58
59
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:26:57
544
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:36:01
75
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:37:16
525
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:46:01
60
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:47:01
539
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
00:56:00
87
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
00:57:27
506
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
01:10:26
104
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
01:12:10
258
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
01:16:28
65
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
01:17:33
224
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
01:21:17
103
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Turn off the e-beam
01:23:00
192
Extensile without electron beam irradiation
Turn on the e-beam
01:26:12
8
Take pictures, video recording etc.
Locate the nanowire and
confirm; Initiate the time
for recording
Total Electron
Beam Illumination
Time
Total time of conducting the
5180 s
tensile test on the SiO2 NW
798 s
Total extensile test
without electron
4382 s
beam illumination
2. In-situ tensile setup under optical microscopy
To avoid the e-beam irradiation absolutely, tensile experiment on a silica nanowire in
air using the piezo-driven extensor were conducted, without ever exposing the NW to
2
e-beam. A sketch of the piezo-driven extensor is shown in Figure S1.One end of the
piezoelectric is fixed to the pedestal, and the other end is free. At the fixed end, a 3D
(x-y-z) micro-adjustment mechanism was used to adjust the relative positions of ‘A’
and ‘B’. The distance between ‘A’ and ‘B’ was thus controlled at several nanometers
per step by tuning the Y-adjustment. The NWs were randomly scattered across the gap
between the two sides, adhering to ‘A’ and ‘B’ by bridge-tangling. The piezoelectric
was connected to a DC voltage power supply whose minimum step is 0.01 V
(corresponding to 2 nm). By controlling the voltage applied to the piezoelectric, ‘A’
moves away from ‘B’. The in-situ tensile process was recorded by the CCD camera
connected to the computer.
FIG S1. Optical setup for conducting tensile experiments on individual silica NWs.
3. Strain rate dependent tests of 9NWs
In-situ tensile test of 9 Silica NWs with different strain rate have been done to study
the strain rate dependence. Table S2 showed the diameters, strain rates and
elongations.
Table 2 Strain rate dependence study of silica NWs
3
No.
Initial diameter
Final
Elongation Rate
Strain rate
(Lf-L0)/L0
（s-1）
Electron beam
D0
diameter
NW 1
38.7 nm
9.6 nm
106%
2.04×10-4
Electron
beam off
NW 2
26.8 nm
20.1 nm
83%
2.31×10-4
Electron
beam off
NW 3
45.2 nm
16.5 nm
49%
4.79×10-4
Electron
beam off
NW 4
39.1 nm
31.3 nm
14.4%
6.78×10-4
Electron
beam off
NW 5
28.3 nm
18.1 nm
30%
1.07×10-3
Electron
beam off
NW 6
25.4 nm
24.2 nm
11%
1.34×10-3
Electron
beam off
NW 7
28.7 nm
27.9 nm
7%
1.4×10-3
Electron
beam off
NW 8
34.2 nm
33.8 nm
3%
2.1×10-3
Electron
beam off
NW 9
34.5 nm
34.5 nm
0
5.23×10-3
Electron
beam off
Df
4