High-temperature thermal stability and axial compressive properties of a coaxial carbonnanotube inside a boron nitride nanotube

Abstract

The structural performance of double-walled C(5, 5)@BN(10, 10) and C(5, 5)@C(10, 10)nanotubes subject to high temperatures is investigated through molecular dynamicssimulations. It is found that the inner tube C(5, 5) in the C(5, 5)@BN(10, 10) exhibits lessdistortion than that in the C(5, 5)@C(10, 10) at annealing temperatures of 3500 and 4000 K.The C(5, 5)@BN(10, 10) and C(5, 5)@C(10, 10) models with different axial compressivestrains are optimized using the universal force field (UFF) method. It is found that thecritical buckling strains of the inner tubes in the C(5, 5)@BN(10, 10) and C(5, 5)@C(10, 10)are 12.74% and 9.1%, respectively. The critical buckling strain of the former islarger than that of the latter; although the former exhibits greater deformationand energy loss after buckling than does the latter. These phenomena are alsoanalyzed on the basis of the radial distribution function (RDF) and system energy.The results of this study indicate that the outer tube boron nitride nanotube(BNNT) has a better protective effect on the inner tube than does the outer tubecarbon nanotube (CNT) under both high-temperature and lower compressivestrain conditions. In these cases, the thermal stability and compressive resistanceproperties of the C(5, 5)@BN(10, 10) are superior to those of the C(5, 5)@C(10, 10).