Glass breaks like metals, but at the nanometer scale

TL;DR

This study uses in situ Atomic Force Microscopy to discover nanoscale damage cavities in glass, suggesting a ductile fracture mechanism similar to metals, which could explain the fracture surface similarities across materials.

Contribution

It reveals nanoscale damage cavities in glass and proposes a ductile fracture mechanism at the nanometer scale, bridging understanding between glass and metallic fracture behaviors.

Findings

Nanoscale damage cavities are observed ahead of crack tips in glass.

Glass exhibits a ductile fracture mechanism at the nanometer scale.

Fracture surface morphologies of glass and metals are strikingly similar.

Abstract

We report in situ Atomic Force Microscopy experiments which reveal the presence of nanoscale damage cavities ahead of a stress-corrosion crack tip in glass. Their presence might explain the departure from linear elasticity observed in the vicinity of a crack tip in glass. Such a ductile fracture mechanism, widely observed in the case of metallic materials at the micrometer scale, might be also at the origin of the striking similarity of the morphologies of fracture surfaces of glass and metallic alloys at different length scales.