Entanglement and the Nonlinear Elastic Behavior of Forests of Coiled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

A model for the elastic response of a foamlike forest of coiled carbon nanotubes under mechanical impact is proposed according to recent experiments reported in the literature. A force vs. displacement relation is derived for different geometries of the impacting object (sphere, cube and circular cone). In the model, entanglement among neighboring coils in the superior part of the forest is explicitly taken into account and we show that it allows the full description of the strongly nonlinear elastic behavior of the forest.

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