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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Poster Session II

BP 26.33: Poster

Donnerstag, 29. März 2007, 17:00–19:30, Poster B

Failure of Viral Shells — William S. Klug¹, Robijn F. Bruinsma¹, Jean-Pilippe Michel¹, Charles M. Knobler¹, Irena L. Ivanovska², Gijs J.L. Wuite², and •Christoph F. Schmidt^2,3 — ¹University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA — ²Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 Amsterdam, — ³III. Physikalisches Institut, Fakultät für Physik, Georg-August Universität, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

We report a combined theoretical and experimental study of the structural failure of viral shells under mechanical stress. We find that discontinuities in the force-indentation curve associated with failure should appear when the so-called Föppl-von Kármán (FvK) number exceeds a critical value. A nano-indentation study of a viral shell subject to a soft-mode instability, where the stiffness of the shell decreases with increasing pH, confirms the predicted onset of failure as a function of the FvK number.