Mechanical Fatigue of Hybrid Glasses

Mechanical fatigue is a potent mechanism of material degradation. Cyclic loading is shown to accelerate crack growth in a ZrOx/epoxysilane film, demonstrating that hybrid organic–inorganic glasses can be susceptible to fatigue. Plasticity-driven fatigue is evidenced by nanometer-high striations on the fracture surfaces. The molecular origin of plasticity in these glasses is discussed with the aid of molecular dynamics simulations.