Mechanical properties of chemical vapor deposition-grown multiwalled carbon nanotubes

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The bending modulus (Young’s modulus) of several chemical vapor deposition-grown multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) have been measured using a vibrating reed technique. Three different precursors were used to produce MWNTs with differing densities of defects in the tube walls. Individual MWNTs were electrostatically driven in air over a dark-field light microscope and the bending modulus of the nanotubes was determined from the frequency of the first vibrational resonance. A correlation between the defect density and the bending modulus was found which implies that the bending modulus is relatively more sensitive to wall defects than the nanotube diameter.