Mechanical properties of carbon nanotube by molecular dynamics simulation

• Published in: Computational materials science Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 180 - 184
• Main Authors: Yao, Zhenhua, Zhu, Chang-Chun, Cheng, Min, Liu, Junhua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.12.2001; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Carbon nanotube; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Exact sciences and technology; Mechanical and acoustical properties of condensed matter; Mechanical properties of nanoscale materials; Molecular dynamics; Physics; Young modulus; Carbon nanotube; Young modulus; Molecular dynamics; 61.48+c; 61.46+e; Total energy; Molecular dynamics method; Theoretical study; Carbon nanotubes; Mechanical properties; Computerized simulation; Tensile strength
• ISSN: 0927-0256; 1879-0801
• DOI: 10.1016/S0927-0256(01)00187-2

The mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) are computed and simulated by using molecular dynamics (MD) in this paper. From the MD simulation for an armchair SWCNT whose diameter is 1.2 nm and length is 4.7 nm, we get that its Young modulus is 3.62 TPa, and tensile strength is 9.6 GPa. It is shown that the Young modulus and tensile strength of armchair SWCNTs are 1∼2 order higher than those of ordinary metal materials. Therefore we can draw a conclusion that carbon nanotubes (CNT) belong to a particular material with excellent mechanical properties.