Influence of vacancy defects on the mechanical behavior and properties of carbon nanotubes

Abstract

In the present paper we intend to explain the discrepancies between theoretical and experimental values of mechanical properties for carbon nanotubes. In the numerical analysis pristine and defective carbon nanotubes are taken into account in order to find how the presence of defects affects on the mechanical properties of the analyzed structures. The imperfect carbon nanotube is modeled as the structure with one missing carbon atom that introduces five- and nine-membered rings referring to the perfect configuration of hexagons arrays.