Tensile nanotubes

The tensile strength of carbon nanotubes has been determined to be over 50 times that of high-carbon steel (Yu et al., 2000). The strength of the bond structure in carbon nanotubes... 

Yu, M.-F. et al. (2000) Strength and breaking mechanism of multiwalled carbon nanotubes under tensile load. Science 287, 637-640. 

Wu AS, Chou T-W, Gillespie JW, Lashmore D, RiouxJ. Electromechanical response and failure behaviour of aerogel-spun carbon nanotube fibers under tensile loading. J Mater Chem. 

Tour et al. (2) prepared polystyrene having an Mn of 60,000 Da reinforced with nanotubes and observed that composites displayed an enhancement in their tensile modulus without a large reduction in their strain-at-break properties. 

Carbon nanotubes conduct electricity because of the extended network of delocalized ir-bonds that runs from one end of the tube to the other. Along the long axis of the tube, their conductivity is high enough to be considered metallic. The tubes are very strong, and their tensile strength parallel to the axis of the tube is the greatest of any material that has... 

The first carbon nanotubes discovered in nature, such as those produced in Iijima s experiments, were multiwalled nanotuhes (MWNT). Multiwalled nanotuhes consist of a number of concentric carbon cylinders, a set of tubes nested inside each other. They are somewhat complex systems that are relatively difficult to study. An important step forward in research on carbon nanotuhes occurred in 1993, when scientists learned how to make single-walled nanotubes (SWNT). Using the simpler SWNTs, scientists have learned quite rapidly a great deal about the electrical conductivity, tensile strength, flexibility, toughness, and other physical properties of carbon nanotuhes. 

Yu, M.-F., Files, B.S., Arepalli, S. and Ruoff, R.S., Tensile loading of ropes of single wall carbon nanotubes and their mechanical properties , Phys. Rev. Lett., 2000, 84, 5552-5555. 

Figure 1.3. Tensile test for the determination of mechanical performance of single nanotube. Reproduced from reference 24 with permission from Elsevier.

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