Nanoporous metals have favourable characteristics for many applications. These materials have, however, failed to show suitable attributes in tension: showing an extremely weak and brittle response. This issue has been addressed through the impregnation of a polymer constituent into the nanoporous ligament network, creating a strong and malleable material in both tension and compression. In this work, this improvement is investigated by comparing nanoporous gold and its polymer filled nanocomposite counterpart using computational microspecimen compact-tensile tests. We examine crack initiation and propagation within these materials. The micromechanical response is also explored to reveal the influence of the polymer impregnation on fracture mechanisms. It is shown that, in agreement with the findings in the literature, the failure of a few gold ligaments in nanoporous gold leads to the complete failure of the material with a relatively small resistance to failure and a characteristically brittle fracture. Polymer impregnation, on the other hand, effectively delays the complete material failure as the polymer stabilizes the individual ligaments. This results in a significantly increased ductility under tension which is vital for it to be considered for use in structural applications.

纳米多孔金属对于许多应用具有有利的特性。但是，这些材料未能显示出合适的拉伸特性：显示出极其脆弱的脆性响应。该问题已通过将聚合物成分浸渍到纳米孔韧带网络中来解决，从而在拉伸和压缩过程中产生了坚固而可延展的材料。在这项工作中，这种改进是通过使用计算微观试样致密拉伸试验比较纳米多孔金及其填充聚合物的纳米复合材料来研究的。我们研究了这些材料中的裂纹萌生和扩展。还探讨了微机械响应，以揭示聚合物浸渍对断裂机理的影响。结果表明，与文献中的发现一致，纳米多孔金中的一些金韧带的断裂导致材料完全断裂，具有相对较小的抗断裂能力和特征性的脆性断裂。另一方面，随着聚合物稳定单个韧带，聚合物浸渍有效地延迟了整个材料的破坏。这导致在拉伸下的延展性显着提高，这对于将其考虑用于结构应用至关重要。