The critical size of micro and nano-structures against the mostdangerous defect

The critical size of micro and nano-structures, for instance nano-wires and nano-particles in Li-ions battery electrodes, is often evaluated after the definition of the “most dangerous defect”. Intuition suggests that it lies orthogonally to the major load axis. In the light of recently proposed investigations on the crack kinking process in brittle materials, this paper will show that such an assumption appears to be incorrect.