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Torsional response and stiffening of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes
P A Williams1, S J Papadakis, A M Patel
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|December 18, 2002
Abstract:
We report on the characterization of torsional oscillators which use multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the spring elements. Through atomic-force-microscope force-distance measurements we are able to apply torsional strains to the nanotubes and measure their torsional spring constants, and estimate their effective shear moduli. The data show that the nanotubes are stiffened by repeated flexing. We speculate that changes in the intershell mechanical coupling are responsible for the stiffening.