Diameter-dependent dissipation of vibration energy of cantilevered multiwall carbon nanotubes.

This study investigated the mechanical properties of vibrating cantilevered multiwall carbon nanotubes in terms of energy loss in a vibrating nanotube. Young's moduli of the nanotubes show a clear dependence of the perfection of the sp(2) carbon network, as determined from Raman spectroscopy. The energy loss corresponding to the inverse of the quality factor increases with increasing tube diameter, although the nanotube maintains high mechanical strength around 0.5 TPa. This fact implies that the vibration energy is dissipated mainly not by defects, but by van der Waals interactions between walls.