Mechanical Behavior of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Water under Tensile Loadings: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Molecular dynamics simulation was carried out to investigate the behavior of (5,5) and (10, 10) armchair carbon nanotubes in water under tensile loading. The water molecules inside a nanoscale tube, unlike inside a bulk tube, have a confined effect. The local density distributions of oxygen and hydrogen atoms inside the carbon nanotubes were calculated to find the confinement effect. Moreover, the mechanical behavior of carbon nanotubes in water was studied under tensile loading. The results show that the Young's modulus of nanotubes in water remains the same as that in vacuum. However, the tensile stress of nanotube in water is less than that in vacuum.