Structure and Mechanical Properties of CNTs

CNT sidewall consists of hexagonal rings which are seamlessly arranged, and so it is rather inert in chemistry. This stable chemical characteristic of CNTs makes it difficult to achieve strong interfacial bonding between CNTs and polymer matrix. That is, in order to achieve high tensile strength and tensile modulus, structure modification is desired to improve the reactivity. 

Synthesis method Test methods Experiment Value 

Laser ablated SWNTs Amplitude of thermal vibration within TEM 1.3TPa 

Laser ablated SWNTs Nanostressing within SEM lTPa 

HiPco SWNTs bundles Beam bending via AFM lTPa for small ropes 3nm diameter 

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Molecular mechanics has been used extensively to investigate the structures and mechanical properties of CNTs. By employing this technique, thermodjmamically stable structures for molecules and nanostructures can be obtained as minimum energy points on the multidimensional surface that represents the potential energy as a function of the atomic coordinates. In this section we review some previous studies involving molecular mechanics, which are especially relevant to our own work directed at the elucidation of factors that control the thermodynamics of polymer-CNT composites. 

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