AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Nanometer-Scale Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session NS1-MoA

Paper NS1-MoA2
The Effect of Filling Carbon Nanotubes on Their Tribological Behavior

Monday, October 31, 2005, 2:20 pm, Room 204

Session: Nanotribology
Presenter: S.-J. Heo, University of Florida
Authors: S.-J. Heo, University of Florida
S.B. Sinnott, University of Florida
Correspondent: Click to Email
As microengineering technology continues to evolve, the design of MicroElectoMechanical System (MEMS) / NanoElectroMechanical System (NEMS) devices is increasingly more complicated. At the same time, the need to consider the tribologicaly properties of the materials that are likely components in future MEMS/NEMS devices has increased. Carbon nanotubes are one of the candidate materials for use in NEMS due to their high stiffness in the direction of the nanotube axis, low Young's modulus perpendicular to the nanotube axis and relative ease with which they slide against one another in bundles as a result of their van der Waals interaction with each other. In addition, nanotubes can stand high compressive and tensile forces prior to failure due to their flexibility. Here we investigate the responses of a bundle of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and filled SWNTs to compressive and shear forces between two hydrogen-terminated sliding diamond surfaces by using classical molecular dynamics simulations. After constructing the systems, they are allowed to equilibrate completely at the room temperature. Then, the topmost diamond substrate moves to compress the nanotubes and then slides relative to the lower diamond surface in order to shear the nanotube bundle. The forces on the atoms are calculated by using the reactive empirical bond-order (REBO) potential for hydrocarbons coupled to Lennard-Jones Potentials. The results elucidate the role of filling on the tribological responses of SWNT bundles. This work is supported by the NSF-funded Network for Computational Nanotechnology (grant no. EEC-02288390).