A Rice University study calculated how strain and stress affect both “perfect” nanotubes and nanotubes assembled into fibers, and periodically loaded fibers break over time.
It did research, it appears in Science AdvancesImportant for Boris Jacobson, a US material theorist, Nitan Gupta, a graduate student, and Evgeni Penev, an assistant professor at George R.
“The time dependence of the strength or durability of individual nanotubes was studied long ago by our group.
Full carbon nanotubes, considered one of the most powerful structures in nature, tend to remain intact unless dramatic impacts take advantage of their brittle nature to shatter them.
However, when millions of nanotubes are bundled into filamentous fibers or other constructs, the van der Waals forces that bind parallel nanotubes to each other do not prevent slipping.Earlier this year, researchers demonstrated how friction between tubes leads to a stronger interface between them.
Each time the nanotube fiber is stretched or pulled, it will almost always return to its original shape when the tension is released.
“The periodic load of nanotube fibers causes adjacent tubes to slide or approach each other, depending on where they are in the cycle,” Gupta explained.
“As we know, some of the best nanotube fiber production strategies are tensile strength “Beyond 10 gigapascals , it’s very good for everyday use, and tests have shown that endurance limits can reach 30% to 50%,” Gupta said.