The ultimate tensile strength of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes was measured in a high-resolution transmission electron microscope equipped with a conducting atomic force microscopy unit. The values were correlated to each nanotube’s structural details. A strength of 100GPa, approaching the theoretical limit for defect-free carbon nanotubes, was found for tubes without visible defects. For those with spatially separated step-wise pentagon-heptagon defects, which determined the break points, it reduced to 40 to 70GPa.

Tensile Tests on Individual Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Linking Nanotube Strength with Its Defects. M.S.Wang, D.Golberg, Y.Bando: Advanced Materials, 2010, 22[36], 4071-5