Determination of the Young’s Modulus of Structurally Defined Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

We have combined optical characterization with a magnetic actuation technique to measure the stiffness of single-walled carbon nanotubes of defined crystal structure. The measured stiffnesses correspond to an average Young's modulus of E = 0.97 +/- 0.16 TPa. For the structures investigated, no dependence on the nanotube chiral index was observed within the indicated experimental accuracy.