Towards a periodic table for the nanomechanical properties of the elements

Starting from a material description involving only two parameters, the cohesion energy and the atomic size, all the fundamental nanomechanical properties for a given chemical element are estimated. In particular, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, critical normal and shear stresses and strains, fracture and fragmentation energies, fracture toughness and coefficient of thermal expansion are deduced. Even if the approach partially recalls the classical solid state physics treatment and gives estimations rather than exact predictions, new interesting aspects clearly emerge from the analysis. According to the proposed simple but general model, a preliminary periodic table for the nanomechanical properties of the elements is presented for the first time. The periodicity of the mechanical properties, similarly to the well-known periodicity of the electronic properties, is clearly emphasized. A comparison between our approach and some data present in the literature concludes this paper. � 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.