Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: January 10, 2017
Chirality-Dependent and Intrinsic Auxeticity for Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Hai-Ning Zhang1, Yin Fan1, Hui-Shen Shen1
1School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Abstract:
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have superior mechanical properties which originate from a strong C-C covalent bond and unique nanostructure. Chirality, one of the helical structural parameters of SWCNTs, leads to differences in mechanical performance. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed to analyze engineering Poisson's ratio (EPR) and incremental Poisson's ratio (IPR) of SWCNTs with different chiral angles, respectively, under tensile and compressive load, as well as the chiral effect on rigidity. We reported the minimum EPR for (4, 1) SWCNT and obtained the distribution and trend of EPR which is dependent on chiral index m. In addition, a new observation showed two exactly opposite trends of EPR existing not only in tension and compression but also in the longitudinal and radial directions. Furthermore, we found that the critical strain, over which SWCNT would be auxetic, ranged from 6% to 18% and was also chirality-dependent. Three representative SWCNTs with chiral angle of 0° (zigzag), 10.89° (chiral), and 30° (armchair) were selected for the mechanism study of auxeticity. Finally, a method of the contribution to radial strain for two main deformation modes proposed in this paper could well explain the negative IPR phenomenon.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Chirality in Nature
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Prochirality
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

