The effect of pinhole defects upon the dynamic characteristics of carbon nanotubes was investigated using continuum mechanics and the molecular structural mechanics approach. Dynamic analysis was performed for achiral nanotubes using the continuum mechanics approach with cantilever boundary condition while, for chiral nanotubes, the molecular structural mechanics method was used. A shift in the principal frequency of the nanotube with the number of pinhole defects on the length was observed and analyzed. The simulation results indicate that the existence of defects mostly affects the resonant frequency (bending rigidity) of single walled carbon nanotubes as the number of defects (pinhole) increase. Further, it was also observed that with the reduction in tube length, the variations in resonant frequency were enhanced. However, it was found that the frequency variation was less sensitive to the nanotube diameter.

The Effect of Pinhole Defect on Vibrational Characteristics of Single Walled Carbon Nanotube. A.Y.Joshi, S.C.Sharma, S.P.Harsha: Physica E, 2011, 43[5], 1040-5. See also: Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 2011, 8[4], 776-82