{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,5]],"date-time":"2026-09-05T06:12:54Z","timestamp":1788588774225,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]],"date-time":"2020-11-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605139200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundations of China","award":["52075417; 51475359"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["52075417; 51475359"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Uniaxial tension tests were performed for amorphous SiO2 nanowires using molecular dynamics simulation to probe the size effect on the mechanical properties and plastic deformation by varying the length of nanowires. The simulation results showed that the Young\u2019s modulus of SiO2 nanowires increased with the decrease of nanowires length due to its higher surface stress. The corresponding deformation of SiO2 nanowires during tension exhibited two periods: atomic arrangement at small strain and plastic deformation at large strain. During the atomic arrangement period, the percentage variations of atom number of 2-coordinated silicon and 3-coordinated silicon (PCN2 and PCN3) decreased, while the percentage variations of atom number of 4-coordinated silicon, 5-coordinated silicon (PCN4 and PCN5) and the Si\u2013O bond number (PCB) rose slightly with increasing strain, as the strain was less than 22%. The situation reversed at the plastic deformation period, owing to the numerous breakage of Si\u2013O bonds as the strain grew beyond 22%. The size effect of nanowires radius was considered, finding that the Young\u2019s modulus and fracture stress were higher for the larger nanowire because of fewer dangling bonds and coordinate defeats in the surface area. The elastic deformation occurred at a small strain for the larger nanowire, followed by the massive plastic deformation during tension. A brittle mechanism covers the fracture characteristics, irrespective of the nanowire size.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma13225110","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]],"date-time":"2020-11-12T10:00:32Z","timestamp":1605175232000},"page":"5110","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Size-Dependent Mechanical Properties of Amorphous SiO2 Nanowires: A Molecular Dynamics Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6951-493X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kun","family":"Sun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi\u2019an Jiaotong University, Xi\u2019an 710049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bingjie","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610014, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liubing","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610014, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liang","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi\u2019an Jiaotong University, Xi\u2019an 710049, China"},{"name":"School of Mechanical &amp; Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College, Zhangzhou 363105, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21497","DOI":"10.1021\/jp063896o","article-title":"Water-silica force field for simulating nanodevices","volume":"110","author":"Aksimentiev","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. 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