ABSTRACT
The fundamental properties of substances refined to the nanodimensions are being studied intensively. As shown in recent years [1–7], the transfer of materials from micro- to nanodimensions results in qualitative changes in their physical, mechanical, physical-mechanical and other properties. Regardless of the exceptional importance of reports on the properties, in particular, the mechanical properties of matter in the ‘nanostate’, this problem is far from being solved. The literature contains only a small number of reports dealing with the construction of complicated and expensive equipment for evaluating the mechanical properties of solids of the micron dimensions in the uniaxial tensile drawing conditions [8–10]. There is almost no reliable information on the stress–strain properties of the material with the size of units or tens of nanometres. This is due mostly to the absence of reliable experimental methods. In fact, it is difficult to imagine how to test by the transitional methods the properties of the solid with the geometrical dimensions of tens or hundreds of angströms. Most information on the mechanical properties of the nanomatter is obtained mainly by indentation experimental methods [11–13]. These approaches have a number of shortcomings of the procedural nature: in particular, they cannot be used for the realistic evaluation of the most important characteristics of solids, such as breaking strain or fracture stress (strength). Therefore, it is very important to carry added investigations aimed at developing new approaches to examine the properties, in particular, the stress–strain properties of the solids, refined to the nanostate.
