Buckling characterizations of an individual multi-walled carbon nanotube: Insights from quantitative in situ transmission electron microscope nanoindentation and molecular dynamics

Nanomechanics and real-time buckling deformation of an individual multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) were investigated through in situ nanoindentation within a transmission electron microscope (TEM). These in situ observations reveal a significant shell-to-Euler phase transformation in the buckling response of the nanotube. Objective evidences that the MWCNT possesses time-dependent characteristic were first suggested by combining in situ TEM nanoindentation performed strain rate influences on an individual MWCNT with classical molecular dynamics simulations. Structural evolutions and buckling instabilities for thin-wall and thick-wall CNTs are theoretically studied, indicating the role of the tube thickness and interwall van der Waals interactions in governing buckling behavior.