Hall-Petch behaviour dictates that with a reduction in grain size the strength of a polycrystalline material increases. Here, the authors model glass-crystal composites of soft and hard particles uncovering a power-law strengthening behaviour beyond the Hall-Petch and inverse-Hall-Petch regimes when grain size is reduced to below 3 nm.
- Huijun Zhang
- Feng Liu
- Yilong Han
