title: The mechanism of cavitation-induced scission of single-walled carbon nanotubes.
abstract: Aqueous suspensions of length selected single-walled carbon nanotubes were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in order to probe the influence of sonication on nanotube scission. The maximum of the tube length distribution, lM, initially exhibits a power law dependence on the sonication time, t - roughly as lM approximately t(-0.5). This and the limiting behavior observed at longer times can be rationalized to first order in terms of a continuum model deriving from polymer physics. In this picture, the strain force associated with cavitation scales with the square of the nanotube length. Scission stops when the strain force falls below the critical value for nanotube disruption.
authors.affiliation: Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Nanotechnologie, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany. Frank.Hennrich@int.fzk.de
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hennrich
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krupke
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rojas Stütz
authors.forename: Sergei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lebedkin
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schimmel
authors.forename: Manfred M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kappes