Design and implementation of nanoscale fiber mechanical testing apparatus

Abstract

The rapid growth in the synthetic manufacturing industry demands higher resolution mechanical testing devices, capable of working with nanoscale fibers. A new device has been developed to perform single-axis tensile tests on fibers with diameter ranging from 50 nm to 10 [micro]m. The device is capable of performing simple extension tests to determine the fiber's strength as well as high-frequency dynamic tests to look at fiber recovery rates, dampening, and fatigue. The force resolution obtained using a quartz strain gauge and a Zeaman interferometer was in the order of 1 nN and the forces measured by the instrument ranged over 10 orders of magnitude. This paper will present the design the Nanofiber tester, which offered better performance than any currently available commercial instruments and will discuss the subtleties around the implementation of the instrument, which is yet to be completed.