Mechanical properties and buckling behaviors of condensed double-walled carbon nanotubes

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed on condensed double-walled carbon nanotubes (CDWCNTs) to investigate the effects of compressed interwall spacings on their mechanical properties, in particular their buckling behavior under axial compression, torsion and bending. In CDWCNTs, the inner and outer nanotubes have diameters that are closer to each other than the nanotubes of conventional double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs). This leads to a smaller interwall spacing. The mechanical properties of the CDWCNTs, such as Young's modulus, interwall shear modulus, and the buckling strain under axial compression, torsion and bending are found to be greatly enhanced when compared with those of conventional DWCNTs. The enhancement is found to be inversely proportional to the interwall spacing.