The effect of two neighboring defects on the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes.

The tensile behavior of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) having two defects (vacancy or Stone-Wales) positioned next to each other was simulated in this study to investigate the influence of the spatial arrangement of defects on the mechanical properties. The simulations were performed using classical molecular dynamics (MD) at the atomic scale. Two neighboring vacancy defects reduced the failure strength as much as 46% and the failure strain as much as 80% in comparison with those of pristine SWNTs, while two neighboring Stone-Wales defects reduced them as much as 34% and 70% respectively.