Chemspy chemistry news and views

Perfecting the defect - Simulations of defects inside copper point the way to making stronger metals. Results show that there are many different deformation mechanisms occurring in nano-structured materials like nanotwinned copper. Understanding each of them will allow scientists to tune material properties. Reference: Z.-X. Wu et al, 'Deformation mechanisms, length scales and optimizing the mechanical properties of nanotwinned metals,' Acta Materialia, 2011; 59 (18): 6890 DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2011.07.038