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Yang L, Greenfeld I, Wagner HD. Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics. Sci Adv. 2016;2(2):e1500969doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1500969.
Yang, L., Greenfeld, I., & Wagner, H. D. (2016). Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics. Science advances, 2(2), e1500969. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500969
Yang, Lin, et al. "Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics." Science advances vol. 2,2 (2016): e1500969. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500969
Yang L, Greenfeld I, Wagner HD. Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics. Sci Adv. 2016 Feb 05;2(2):e1500969. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1500969. eCollection 2016 Feb. PMID: 26989774; PMCID: PMC4788477.
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Sci Adv. 2016 Feb 05;2(2):e1500969. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1500969. eCollection 2016 Feb.

Toughness of carbon nanotubes conforms to classic fracture mechanics.

Science advances

Lin Yang, Israel Greenfeld, H Daniel Wagner

Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.

PMID: 26989774 PMCID: PMC4788477 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500969

Abstract

Defects in crystalline structure are commonly believed to degrade the ideal strength of carbon nanotubes. However, the fracture mechanisms induced by such defects, as well as the validity of solid mechanics theories at the nanoscale, are still under debate. We show that the fracture toughness of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) conforms to the classic theory of fracture mechanics, even for the smallest possible vacancy defect (~2 Å). By simulating tension of SWNTs containing common types of defects, we demonstrate how stress concentration at the defect boundary leads to brittle (unstable) fracturing at a relatively low strain, degrading the ideal strength of SWNTs by up to 60%. We find that, owing to the SWNT's truss-like structure, defects at this scale are not sharp and stress concentrations are finite and low. Moreover, stress concentration, a geometric property at the macroscale, is interrelated with the SWNT fracture toughness, a material property. The resulting SWNT fracture toughness is 2.7 MPa m(0.5), typical of moderately brittle materials and applicable also to graphene.

Keywords: CNTF; SWNT; carbon nanotube; carbon nanotube fiber; defect; fracture mechanics; fracture toughness; graphene

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