A comparison between the mechanical and thermal properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes and boron nitride nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are semimetallic while boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are wide band gap insulators. Despite the discrepancy in their electrical properties, a comparison between the mechanical and thermal properties of CNTs and BNNTs has a significant research value for their potential applications. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to systematically investigate the mechanical and thermal properties of CNTs and BNNTs. The calculated Young's modulus is about 1.1 TPa for CNTs and 0.72 TPa for BNNTs under axial compressions. The critical bucking strain and maximum stress are inversely proportional to both diameter and length-diameter ratio and CNTs are identified axially stiffer than BNNTs. Thermal conductivities of (10, 0) CNTs and (10, 0) BNNTs follow similar trends with respect to length and temperature and are lower than that of their two-dimensional counterparts, graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and BN nanoribbons (BNNRs), respectively. As the temperature falls below 200 K (130 K) the thermal conductivity of BNNTs (BNNRs) is larger than that of CNTs (GNRs), while at higher temperature it is lower than the latter. In addition, thermal conductivities of a (10, 0) CNT and a (10, 0) BNNT are further studied and analyzed under various axial compressive strains. Low-frequency phonons which mainly come from flexure modes are believed

Graphene nanoribbon winding around carbon nanotube

“…Presented here chain model can be applied to other 2D materials, for example, to boron nitride having structure similar to graphene, which can also appear in the forms of nanotubes [90,91] and scrolls around nanotubes [92].…”

Molecular dynamics investigation of the thermal properties in single-walled boron nitride nanotube

“…Ting Li et al [18] used molecular dynamics (MD) found that the thermal conductivity of CNTs is higher than BNNTs. They also calculated the thermal conductivity of (10,10) CNT and BNNT under various axial Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.…”

Finite Element Model and Size Dependent Stability Analysis of Boron Nitride and Silicon Carbide Nanowires/Nanotubes

“…To illustrate, in the case of mechanical properties, CNT has Young's modulus around 1 TPa, while BNNT has 1.8 TPa and 0.62 TPa for SiCNT. The Poisson's ratio used for analysis in the current research is 0.37 for SiCNT and 0.25 for BNNT [49][50][51]. Moreover, CNTs can resist thermal environment up to 600 C, while SiCNT can resist up to 1000 C in the air without any damage [52,53].…”