News and opinions more advanced applications as smart textiles or in robotics to follow.

Richard Vaia of the Air Force Research Laboratory says the work is an excellent example of a combination of clever choice of materials with structure design to create novel properties. These concepts have the potential to go beyond current state-of-the-art design due to the synergy arising from the hierarchical material-structure design, he says. Vaia cautions that the CNT yarn-based articial muscles will be limited by the fundamental electro-thermal

3 transduction mechanism. But he suggests that they could nd applications in particular niches like satellites where a structural framework has to be packaged for delivery and unpacked for service or, for example, to replace hydraulic systems in aircraft design, where an electrically driven actuator would have advantages in weight, reliability, and maintenance. E-mail address: cordelia.sealy@googlemail.com
1748-0132/$ see front matter http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nantod.2012.12.006

Dislocations deform even the smallest nanoparticles

Cordelia Sealy

The plasticor permanentdeformation of metals depends on the nucleation and motion of dislocations. That motion of dislocationsor glideis mediated by what happens at the grain boundaries within a material. Understanding and controlling glidewhich causes crystalline rotation or textureis a major effort in materials science and engineering but can be difcult. Now researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, Berkeley; University of Nevada; Southern University; the Carnegie Institution of Washington; and the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research in Shanghai, China, used Berkeleys Advanced Light Source (ALS) Beamline to put pressure on Ni nanocrystals with a

radial diamond anvil cell (rDAC) and x-ray diffraction to see what happens in situ (Fig. 1). Analysis of nanoparticles of 500 nm, 20 nm, and 3 nm diameter yielded the surprising result that the smallest nanocrystals show evidence of dislocation-mediated deformation under high external pressures (Fig. 1). At pressures as low as 3.0 GPa, large 500 nm Ni grains exhibit substantial texturing, indicating dislocation glide. Smaller 20 nm grains also show texturing but at higher pressures of 11.0 GPa. But what was unexpected was that the smallest grains of 3 nm also developed texture at pressures above 18.0 GPa. Our results demonstrate that dislocation-mediated deformation persists to smaller crystal sizes than

Figure 1 Radial diamond-anvil cell (rDAC) x-ray diffraction setup for in situ high pressure texturing measurements. (Image courtesy of Bin Chen and NDT Education Resource Center.)

4 anticipated, primarily because computer models have not given enough consideration to the effects of external stress and grain boundaries, says rst author Bin Chen of the Berkeley Lab. Previous computer simulations and electron microscopy had led to the hypothesis that dislocation-mediated plastic deformation would become inactive in grain sizes less than 1030 nm. Our observations indicate that contrary to computer simulations, the tiny size of nanocrystals apparently does not safeguard them from defects, Chen told Nano Today. The current understanding of dislocations [will now be] modied for better applications to the nanoscale. E-mail address: cordelia.sealy@googlemail.com
1748-0132/$ see front matter http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nantod.2012.12.011

C. Sealy
Cordelia Sealy has many years experience as a scientic journalist and editor in areas spanning nanotechnology, materials science and engineering, physics and chemistry. She has served as Editor of Materials Today and Nano Today, and more latterly as Managing Editor of both titles. She has also worked in academic publishing as a books acquisitions editor and in business-to-business publishing as a journalist on European Semiconductor. She has a First in Physical Sciences (BSc) from University College London and a DPhil in materials science from the University of Oxford, and is a Member of the Institute of Physics. Cordelia is currently a freelance science writer for her own company, Oxford Science Writing, and News and Opinions Editor for Nano Today.