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The collective dynamic behavior of carbon atoms of a (17, 0) zigzag single wall carbon nanotube is investigated under tensile strains by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The “slip vector” parameter is used to study the collective motion of a group of atoms and the deformation behavior in three different directions (axial, radial, and tangential) of a (17, 0) carbon nanotube. The variations of radial slip vectors indicate almost all carbon atoms of the (17, 0) carbon nanotube will stay on the cylindrical surface before the yielding of the single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT). Furthermore, the tangential vectors show kinking deformation for the (17, 0) zigzag tube only rarely appears when the crack occurs. Non-symmetrical deformation around a carbon atom along the axial direction also can be found. The variations in the slip vector values of each atom display a symmetrical crack along the horizontal direction and normal to the tube axis. Chain-like structures with 3–4 atoms can be observed, with the number of chain-like structures decreasing before the breakage of the SWNT. The mechanical properties and dynamic behavior of a (17, 0) zigzag SWNT under tensile strain are also compared with that of a (10, 10) armchair tube in our previous study (Weng et al. 2009).

The electronic properties of an armchair (4,4) single-walled silicon carbide nanotube (SWSiCNT) with the length and diameter of 22.4 and 6.93 A, respectively under different tensile strains are investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The change of highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO–LUMO) gap of the nanotube has been observed during the elongation process. Our results show that the gap will significantly decrease linearly with the increase of axial strain. Two different slopes are found before and after an 11% strain in the profiles of the HOMO–LUMO gap. The radial buckling has been performed to investigate the radial geometry of nanotube. The partial density of states (PDOS) of two neighboring Si and C atoms of the nanotube are further studied to demonstrate the strain effect on the electronic structure of SiC nanotube. The PDOS results exhibit that the occupied states of Si atom and the unoccupied states of C atom are red-shifted and blue-shifted under stretching, respectively. Mulliken charge analysis reveals that Si and C atoms will become less ionic under the larger strain. The electron differences of silicon carbide nanotube (SiCNT) on tensile loading are also studied.