Diverse corrugation pattern in radially shrinking carbon nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation of diverse radial corrugation patterns in multi-walled carbon nanotubes subjected to electron-beam irradiation, revealing how selective outer wall shrinking influences internal stress and deformation phases.

Contribution

It introduces a continuum mechanics model to analyze how selective irradiation induces radial shrinkage and complex corrugation patterns in multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

Findings

Outer wall irradiation causes radial shrinkage and internal pressure buildup.

Two distinct deformation phases with different corrugation amplitudes are identified.

A classification scheme for corrugation patterns based on deformation phases.

Abstract

Stable cross-sections of multi-walled carbon nanotubes subjected to electron-beam irradiation are investigated in the realm of the continuum mechanics approximation. The self-healing nature of sp$^2$ graphitic sheets implies that selective irradiation of the outermost walls causes their radial shrinkage with the remaining inner walls undamaged. The shrinking walls exert high pressure on the interior part of nanotubes, yielding a wide variety of radial corrugation patterns ({\it i.e.,} circumferentially wrinkling structures) in the cross section. All corrugation patterns can be classified into two deformation phases for which the corrugation amplitudes of the innermost wall differ significantly.