Mechanical behavior investigation of single-walled carbon nanotubes with one vacancy

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) without any defects show particular promise for technological applications in the diverse fields of chemistry, electronics, engineering, and reinforced composite structures. Due to the unique high strength and low specific weight, CNTs can be used as exceptional stiff fibers for nanocomposites. Some CNTs have been also acted as probes in scanning probe microscopy. A variety of CNTs mechanical devices, namely, nano-oscillators and nano-actuators, have been investigated experimentally. CNTs can be synthesized by using different techniques such as arc discharge technique, a laser furnace technique, and various chemical vapor deposition techniques which can directly grow CNTs on catalyst layer deposited on solid substrates. However, CNTs suffer from defects that may occur because of production inabilities, be deliberately introduced by irradiation with energetic particles, purification or by chemical treatment. In this work, mechanical properties of defective single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with different diameter which include (5, 5) armchair SWCNT, (6, 6) armchair SWCNT and (8, 8) armchair SWCNT are studied at 300K. To consider the temperature effects, the perfect (6, 6) armchair SWCNT and the (6, 6) armchair SWCNT with one vacancy (SWCNT-v) are considered at 300K, 500K and 700K respectively.