A study on the bending stiffness of single-walled carbon nanotubes and related issues

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are usually modeled as elastic tubes and their bending stiffness D is often related to their axial stretching modulus E (Young's modulus) as in mechanics of materials (i.e. D=EI where I is the moment of inertia of the tube). However, recent studies show that large discrepancies may exist when this relationship is used to predict Young's modulus of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through bending dominated deformations. In the present paper, the bending stiffness of SWCNTs and some related issues are investigated by the combined use of the molecular-mechanics (M-M) model and the deformation mapping technique. Based on the analysis results, the contradictions mentioned above can be explained well. Furthermore, an analytical expression for the bending stiffness of SWCNTs is also presented. It shows that the bending stiffness of a SWCNT is approximately proportional to the cube of its radius which agrees well with the existing molecular dynamics simulation and continuum theory based results.