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Phoenix666 writes:

Every material can bend and break. Through nearly a century's worth of research, scientists have had a pretty good understanding of how and why. But, according to new findings from Drexel University materials science and engineering researchers, our understanding of how layered materials succumb to stresses and strains was lacking. The report suggests that, when compressed, layered materials -- everything from sedimentary rocks, to beyond-whisker-thin graphite -- will form a series of internal buckles, or ripples, as they deform.

The finding was published in the journal Scientific Reports by a team of researchers from Drexel's College of Engineering, led by Michel W. Barsoum, PhD, distinguished professor and head of the MAX/MXene Research Group, along with Garritt J. Tucker, PhD, an assistant professor, and Mitra Taheri, PhD, Hoeganaes associate professor, all in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Barsoum had observed the latter phenomena during his studies of layered materials such as the MAX phases, mica and graphite. So when a paper published, in early 2015, by a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggested a new deformation micromechanism -- best described as an atomic scale ripple -- occurring near the surface of layered materials, he realized that the defect, dubbed a "ripplocation," had much broader implications.

Original Submission