Elastic Properties of Carbon Nanotubes

A new theoretical model is presented to analyze the elastic moduli of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The angles variations of carbon-carbon-carbon (C-C-C) bond for different chirality and radius of CNTs are revealed, and the intrinsic correlation between the elastic modulus of CNTs and their C-C-C bond angels, radii, chirality is established by this model. The elastic properties of CNTs of different diameters and different chirality were theoretically predicted, And the inner mechanism of why CNTs have scale effect on elastic modulus is explained clearly. This model is verified by molecular dynamics simulation. The results on the mechanical properties of CNTs show that the elastic properties of CNTs are sensitive to the tube diameter and helicity. The smaller the diameter is, the more strongly the elastic properties depend on the chirality, and the CNTs show the more obvious anisotropic properties.