ABSTRACT
We learned in Chapter 7 that at room temperature, carbon
nanotubes typically fail at strains of less than 15%, and in practice
only 6% is achieved due to structural defects. Hence, it would
be very surprising that at high temperature above 2000 K, an
SWNT undergoes superplastic deformation (i.e., super-elongation)
to strains of 280% [255]. Furthermore, such exceptional ductile
behaviors were observed also in double-and triple-walled carbon
nanotubes with an elongation of 190%. Thus, although carbon
nanotubes are brittle in normal conditions (as demonstrated
in Section 7.3), at sufficiently high temperatures they become
extremely ductile.
