From mesoscale to nanoscale mechanics in single-wall carbon nanotubes

Author(s)
Abraao C. Torres-Dias, Tiago F. T. Cerqueira, Wenwen Cui, Miguel A. L. Marques, Silvana Botti, Denis Machon, Markus A. Hartmann, Yiwei Sun, David J. Dunstan, Alfonso San-Miguel
Abstract

The analysis of the radial collapse of individualized and isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes under high pressure as function of their diameter, d, distinguishes their mesoscale and their nanoscale mechanics. The evolution with pressure of the Raman spectra for nine tube chiralities and the theoretical modelling reveal a deviation from the continuum mechanics prediction of a collapse pressure P

C∝d

−3. Nanotubes show a normalized collapse pressure P

N=P

Cd

3=24αD(1−β

2/d

2) both in experiment and in very different theoretical models. In this expression β=0.44±0.04nm represents the smallest diameter for a stable freestanding single-wall carbon nanotube and D is the bending stiffness of graphene. From the experimental data D=1.7±0.2eV. Deviations from the continuum mechanics predictions start to be of significance for diameters smaller than ∼1nm. The associated reduction of their collapse pressure is attributed to the discretization of the elastic compliances around the circumference of the tubes.

Organisation(s)
Computational and Soft Matter Physics
External organisation(s)
Université Claude-Bernard-Lyon-I, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Queen Mary University of London, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Journal
Carbon
Volume
123
Pages
145-150
No. of pages
6
ISSN
0008-6223
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2017.07.036
Publication date
10-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103018 Materials physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Chemistry, General Materials Science
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/47d08790-5eeb-48ff-890b-a6be20c07078