Brown University Materials Science Research and Engineering Center

1. Brown University Materials Science Research and Engineering Center Compressive dynamic scission of carbon nanotubes under sonication: fracture by atomic ejection William A. Curtin, Brown University, DMR 0520651 Carbon nanotubes can be the building blocks for nanoscale electronics, and so have a number of potential applications in technologies including from automotive, biomedicine, energy, and optics. However, improved control of carbon nanotube manufacturing is required to design mass production of these materials. Researchers at Brown have performed computational studies of the fracture processes of single walled carbon nanotubes under sonication to understand, and thus control, the cutting mechanisms of carbon nanotubes. The research results reveal how forces generating during the collapse of bubbles in the sonication process lead to buckling collapse of the carbon nanotubes followed by carbon atom ejection and severing of the nanotube. The atomic ejection process alsso leads to kinked junctions of carbon nanotubes, which have potential use as nano-scale transistors. H. B. Chew, M.-W. Moon, K. R. Lee and K.-S. Kim, 2011, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES   Volume: 467   Issue: 2129   Pages: 1270-1289 Sponsored by the NSF MRSEC on “Micro-and Nano Mechanics of Materials” at Brown U., DMR 0520651.