Supercrystalline nanocomposites are nanoarchitected materials with a growing range of applications but unexplored in their structural behavior. They typically consist of organically functionalized inorganic nanoparticles arranged into periodic structures analogous to crystalline lattices, including superlattice imperfections induced by processing or mechanical loading. Although featuring a variety of promising functional properties, their lack of mechanical robustness and unknown deformation mechanisms hamper their implementation into devices. We show that supercrystalline materials react to indentation with the same deformation patterns encountered in single crystals. Supercrystals accommodate plastic deformation in the form of pile-ups, dislocations, and slip bands. These phenomena occur, at least partially, also after cross-linking of the organic ligands, which leads to a multifold strengthening of the nanocomposites. The classic shear theories of crystalline materials are found to describe well the behavior of supercrystalline nanocomposites, which result to feature an elastoplastic behavior, accompanied by compaction.

超晶纳米复合材料是纳米结构的材料，具有越来越广泛的应用范围，但其结构性能尚未得到探索。它们通常由有机功能化的无机纳米粒子组成，这些纳米粒子排列成类似于晶格的周期性结构，包括由加工或机械载荷引起的超晶格缺陷。尽管具有多种有前途的功能特性，但它们缺乏机械强度和未知的变形机制，阻碍了它们在设备中的实现。我们表明，超晶材料对压痕的反应与单晶中遇到的变形模式相同。超晶以堆积，位错和滑带的形式适应塑性变形。这些现象至少部分发生 在有机配体交联之后也是如此，这导致纳米复合材料的多重增强。发现经典的晶体材料剪切理论很好地描述了超晶纳米复合材料的行为，从而导致了具有弹塑性和压缩的行为。