title: The Great Reduction of a Carbon Nanotube's Mechanical Performance by a Few Topological Defects.
abstract: It is widely believed that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be employed to produce superstrong materials with tensile strengths of up to 50 GPa. Numerous efforts have, however, led to CNT fibers with maximum strengths of only a few GPa. Here we report that, due to different mechanical responses to the tensile loading of disclination topological defects in the CNT walls, a few of these topological defects are able to greatly decrease the strength of the CNTs, by up to an order of magnitude. This study reveals that even nearly perfect CNTs cannot be used to build exceptionally strong materials, and therefore synthesizing flawless CNTs is essential for utilizing the ideal strength of CNTs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong, China.|School of Physics and Electronic & Electrical Engineering and Jiangsu Key Construction Laboratory of Modern Measurement Technology and Intelligent Systems, Huaiyin Normal University , Huai'an, Jiangsu 223300, China.|Department of Physics, Southeast University , Nanjing, 211189, China.
authors.forename: Liyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Southeast University , Nanjing, 211189, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Applications (SICQEA), Hunan Normal University , Changsha 410081, China.
authors.forename: Jinlan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ding
keywords: carbon nanotubes; density functional tight binding; disclination topological defects; tensile strength