Effect of Temperature on Elastic Properties of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

In this article, effect of temperature on elastic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes is investigated by means of a molecular structural mechanics model in which the primary bonds between two nearest-neighboring atoms are treated as a two-node dimensional Euler—Bernoulli beam. By considering the effect of environmental temperature on force constant values of bond stretching, bond angle bending, and torsional resistance, the corresponding basic parameters of these two-node dimensional Euler—Bernoulli beam elements are obtained under different environmental temperatures, respectively. Nano-scale finite element simulations of the elastic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes under different environmental temperatures reveal that the elastic modulus of single-walled carbon nanotubes decreases significantly with the increase of temperature. It is noted that the Young's modulus of armchair nanotubes is more sensitive to environmental temperature due to the tube chirality. Finally, the relationship between elastic modulus of zigzag and armchair carbon nanotubes and environmental temperature is given by a simple formula.