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Reversible stretching of pre-strained water-filled carbon nanotubes under electric fields

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Abstract

As a two-phase structure, the water-filled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been successfully observed and separated in laboratory, which provide an ideal choice for functional building blocks at nanoscale. In this paper, the controllable stretching of the water-filled CNTs with a pre-strain under electric fields is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The simulation results reveal that the stretching of straight water-filled CNTs slightly, but that of collapsed water-filled CNTs obviously, increases with the increase in the electric field intensity. At the similar level of pre-strain, the increase in the water filling density can promote the stretching of collapsed water-filled CNTs. As the pre-strain increases, a decrease can be found in the stretching of the collapsed water-filled CNTs with the same filling density. Moreover, the pre-strained water-filled CNTs can make a rapid and reversible response to the external electric field. The distributions of the dipole orientations of water molecules along the CNTs are utilized to elucidate the stretching mechanism. Our findings provide a feasible route for the design and fabrication of nanoscale switch and controller.

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Acknowledgments

The supports of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11302037, 11272003, 91315302, 11232003 and 11472117), the 111 Project (No. B08014), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2013M530909 and 2013T60503), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-13-0088), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Structure Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    H. F. Ye, H. W. Zhang, Z. Chen & Y. G. Zheng

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Z. Chen

  3. School of Naval Architecture, Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Z. Zong

  4. Micro/Nano Science and Technology Center, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 210013, People’s Republic of China

    Z. Q. Zhang

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  1. H. F. Ye
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  2. H. W. Zhang
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  3. Z. Chen
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  4. Y. G. Zheng
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  5. Z. Zong
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Correspondence to H. W. Zhang.

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Ye, H.F., Zhang, H.W., Chen, Z. et al. Reversible stretching of pre-strained water-filled carbon nanotubes under electric fields. Microfluid Nanofluid 18, 1201–1207 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1515-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1515-7

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