Structure and mechanical

properties of Carbon nanotubes

J. Gil Sevillano
TECNUN
2003

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Many people considers C nanotubes

(discovered in 1991) as the fiber and cable
material of the future:
Very high stiffness
Very high strength
High aspect ratio
Low density

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Recent press quotation

Not (only) Science Fiction: An Elevator to Space!

With advances toward ultrastrong fibers, the concept of building an
elevator 60,000 miles high to carry cargo into space is moving from the
realm of science fiction to the fringes of reality (?)
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Not science-fiction at all!

"Technically it's feasible," said Robert Cassanova, director
of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. "There's
nothing wrong with the physics."
The key to the concept's feasibility lies in the material that
will be used to construct the ribbon between the Earth and
outer space: NANOTUBES

Nanotubes are essentially sheets of graphite -- a lattice of carbon --

seamlessly rolled into long tubes that are mere

nanometers in diameter. These are 100 times

but much lighter.

as strong as steel,

NIAC has given more than $500,000 to Seattle-based

HighLift Systems to develop the concept under the leadership
of the company's chief technology officer, Bradley Edwards.

Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Carbon nanotubes
Elastic modulus and strength of C multi-walled C
nanotubes (MWCNT) measured by direct tension in a
TEM (Demczyk et al., 2002):
E (TPa)

f (GPa)

F f (N)

Tube diameter (nm)

0.91 ( 0.18)

150 ( 45)

18

12.5

Other experimental values in the literature range from 0.1 to

1.8 TPa and 10 to 150 GPa for, respectively the CNT Young
modulus and strength.
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Theoretical estimations for graphene sheets Young modulus and

fracture strength are, respectively, 1.03 TPa and 140 to 177 GPa
(Demczyk et al., 2002). A thickness of 0.34 nm of the sheet has been
assumed for calculating the stress.
First-principles calculations for SWCNT (single-walled C nanotubes,
Zhou et al., 2001) yield E = 0.76 TPa and = 6.25 GPa.
Molecular dynamics have yielded 3.62 TPa and 9.6 GPa for the same
properties (Yao et al., 2001).
More recent results of MD yield 1.24 to 1.35 TPa for the Young
modulus (Jin and Yuan, 2003) for SWCNT or 1.05 TPa (Li and Chou,
2003) for MWCNT.

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Bundles of CNT
Oriented CNT bundles can be considered Van der Waals solids,
with very weak transverse properties, highly anisotropic.

Up to now, most realizations of CNT cables yield very

modest results: Vigolo et al. (2000) have measured 9 to
15 GPa for the apparent Young modulus and about 150
MPa for the apparent tensile strength of bundles of
oriented 1.4 nm diameter SWCNT (fibres up to 100 m
diameter, 1.3 to 1.5 g/cm3 density).
However, Baughman (2000) has quoted a tensile stregth
of 36 GPa with a 6% elongation for small diameter CNT
bundles.
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

What are CNT?

Tubules of closed graphene sheets

[A very good recent review: Ruoff et al., C. R. Physique, in press, 2003]

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Graphene sheets of
graphite

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

3-D surfaces based on graphene sheets

may be imagined and some of them,
CNT among others, are possible

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Graphene is in-plane anisotropic

The orientation on the sheet plane
is defined by the chiral vector

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Chiral vector

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

SWCNT of different chiral vector

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

MWCNT

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Nanotube
ends

Atomic resolution
STM image of
nanotubes

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

CTN are fabricated by different

methods

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Direct-current electric arc discharge method

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Laser ablation method

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

NT towers or carpets grown by cathalisis

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Mechanical testing of SWCNT: direct tensile testing

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Elastic modulus measured by vibration

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

TENSILE TESTS
WARNING: stress calculated assuming an
equivalent thickness of 0.34 nm for each layer of
loaded CNT!

SWCNT (Yu et al., 2000a)

E (mean): 1002 GPa

MWCNT (Yu et al., 2000b)

E: 270 to 950 MPa
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

An example of calculation of elastic constants of CNT

[with an engineer-mind method]
(Li and Chou, 2003)

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

SWCNT as a frame structure

Covalent bonds are

treated as connecting
beam elements between C
atoms, resisting stretching,
bending and torsion.
Bean dimensions and force
constants are fitted to the
molecular force field
constants (linear behaviour
assumed)

Analysis of tensile deformation

Id. of shear

Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

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Interlayer forces in MWCNT

Non-directional Van der Waals

forces are simulated with a
Lennard-Jones potential
transmitted by rods connected
by rotatable end joints (only
tensile or compressive forces
are transmited)
(Strongly non-linear response)
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2
2

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Another calculation:

SWCNT (Natsuki et al. 2003)

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

As mentioned at the beginning, not only rigidity

but CNT strength is exceptional as well!

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

An optimistic view?
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

The strength depends on orientation

Sometimes
the results
reported are
rather poor

Mechanical behaviour is a function of

chiral vector of SWCNT
Stone-Wales defect formation leads to
(soft) plastic behaviour or to brittle
fracture depending on chirality
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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Other questions to be considered for the

design of and with CNT
E.g.: flattening, buckling

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

Flattening from Van der waals forces

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TEM

FEM calculation

Buckling on bending, Pantano et al., 2004

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Torsional buckling

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN

The importance, due to the high expected strength,

the known high stiffnessin tensile load, and the load
density, of CNT materials means that their
mechanical properties deserve and will surely
receive scrutiny for decades to come
(R. S. Ruoff, D. Quiang and W. K. Liu, 2003)

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Carbon Nanotubes Mechanical Properties J. Gil Sevillano - TECNUN