The enhancement of fracture toughness exhibited by silica glass (SG) remains a challenge for a wide variety of technology applications, particularly without implying significant changes in the glass structure. The present work shows that embedded platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) can significantly improve the mechanical performance of silica glass (PtNPs/SG). The PtNPs were implanted into a high‐purity SG substrate with 3MV Tandem accelerator Pelletron and thermally annealed at 600°C. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy characterizations disclosed a Gaussian distribution of PtNPs at 600‐nm depth. Nanoindentation test revealed that brittleness (B) decreased about 24% and the effective elastic modulus (E_r) increased by about 7% for the nanostructured compound. Additionally, an increase in fracture toughness (K_c) of 19% and an enhancement of elasto‐plastic performance behavior during the scratch test were observed. Therefore, embedded PtNPs represent a potential solution for brittleness problems in SG.

中文翻译：

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离子注入铂纳米粒子增强了石英玻璃的断裂韧性

石英玻璃（SG）所表现出的断裂韧性的增强仍然是各种技术应用面临的挑战，特别是在不暗示玻璃结构发生重大变化的情况下。目前的工作表明，嵌入的铂纳米粒子（PtNPs）可以显着提高二氧化硅玻璃（PtNPs / SG）的机械性能。将PtNPs植入带有3MV串联加速器Pelletron的高纯度SG衬底中，并在600°C下进行热退火。卢瑟福背散射光谱学和透射电子显微镜表征揭示了600nm深度处PtNP的高斯分布。纳米压痕测试表明，脆性（B）降低了约24％，有效弹性模量（E _r对于纳米结构化合物而言，）增加了约7％。此外，观察到在划痕试验期间，断裂韧性（K _c）增加了19％，弹塑性性能行为得到了增强。因此，嵌入式PtNP代表了SG中脆性问题的潜在解决方案。