Interfacial shear strengths between carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Interfacial shear strengths or static frictions between carbon nanotubes (CNT) in contactat different cross angles are studied by using atomic mechanics. It is shown that the axialinterfacial shear strengths between parallel CNTs in commensurate are two orders ofmagnitude greater than those in incommensurate. This strong chiral dependence is notsurprising and is similar to that of the friction between two graphite basal planes. In contrast,we find that the interfacial shear strengths of crossly contacted CNT pairs are much lessdependent upon chirality. The estimated values of interfacial shear strengths, ranging from0.05 to0.35 GPa, agree very well with experimentally measured results available in the literature. Theseresults may thus be used as a basis for explaining the observed tension strengths of CNTbundles and films that are mainly bonded by van der Waals interactions and themechanical behaviors of composite materials with highly concentrated CNTs.