Mechanics of a Carbon Nanocoil

An individual carbon nanocoil was clamped between two AFM cantilevers and loaded in tension to a maximum relative elongation of ∼42%. The deformation of the nanocoil agrees well with an analytical model of the spring constant that accounts for the geometric nonlinearity. The nanocoil behaves like an elastic spring with a spring constant K of 0.12 N/m in the low strain region. No plastic deformation was detected. High-resolution microscopy images and the electron energy loss spectrum (EELS) indicate that the nanocoils are amorphous with a sp2/sp3 bonded-carbon ratio of ∼4:1.