Molecular dynamics of adhesion force of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

It is of great significance to provide theoretical guidance to the application of carbon nanotubes as adhesive materials via the investigation on their adhesion force. In this paper, molecular dynamics was adopted to investigate the adhesion force between the graphene substrate and the carbon nanotubes with varying deformation degrees and diverse types of irradiation induced defects at different temperatures. No obvious adhesion force was found between the carbon nanotube and graphene until the deformation degree of the former reached > 70%. The adhesion force would be maintained at a high level when the temperature was in the range of 280–320 K, which limited its application. Moreover, the adhesion force between carbon nanotube with vacancies and graphene substrate would decrease with increasing size of vacancies. Finally, compared with monovacancies and divacancies, Stone-Wales defects most remarkably reduced the adhesion force of carbon nanotubes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]