Buckling of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Atomic-Scale Finite Element
A. Y. T. Leung
Department of Building and Construction
City University of Hong Kong
Abstract
This talk presents an atomic-scale finite element method to study buckling of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). With the bending angle increasing, kink(s) will appear and morphology of the SWNT will change abruptly at certain bending angles. The morphology of kinked SWNT is obtained in detail. The (15, 0) changes into a one-kinked structure, and finally contains two kinks; while the (10, 0) changes into a one-kinked structure, then into a two-kinked one, and finally contains three kinks. Strain energy grows as a quadratic function of bending angle, then increases gradually slowly, and finally changes approximately piecewise linearly. The simulation shows that SWNTs have very good flexibility.
