Crystalline polyethylene nanofibers with the theoretical limit of Young's modulus.

A highly crystalline polyethylene nanofiber is deflected by a cantilever under an atomic force microscope. The resulting approach and retract curves on both nanofiber and silicon substrate yield the Young's modulus of the nanofiber. The experiments show that the average Young's modulus of polyethylene nanofibers with diameters from 70 nm to 260 nm can be as high as 312 GPa.