On factors defining the mechanical behavior of nanoporous gold

Nanoporous gold (NPG) made by dealloying takes the form of a network nanoscale struts or “ligaments”. It is well established that material’s mechanical behavior strongly affected its ligament size, L and solid volume fraction, ?. We explore NPG, with an emphasis on establishing consistent data set comparable but covering significant range initial Specimens are prepared from Ag-Au master alloys their Au atom xAu0 in 0.20–0.35. Since replaces Ag voids, ? may be expected to agree xAu0. Yet, spontaneous plastic deformation events during can result macroscopic shrinkage, decoupling This raises question, how do separately affect behavior? confirm two recent suggestions, namely i) modified Roberts-Garboczi-type scaling law for Young’s modulus versus material as-prepared state ii) relevance apparent “load-bearing fraction” as strength. remarkably, we find stiffness strength show much better correlation compared understood consequence microstructural changes induced shrinkage. Studying microstructure evolution annealing, also suggestion coarsening entails enhanced loss samples lesser fraction. finding confirms concerns about notion self-similar general dealloying-made materials.