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In-situ fracture of a carbon nanotube micro-pillar
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The scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows a top-down view of a carbon-nanotube (CNT) micro-pillar after failure at ~1 GPa stress. These CNT micro-pillars were fabricated from highly dense CNT brushes, produced by high temperature vacuum decomposition of SiC single crystals, using focused ion beam (FIB) micromachining. Under in-situ micro-compression experiments, these dense CNT pillars are found to exhibit higher modulus and orders of magnitude higher resistance to buckling than CNT brushes produced using other methods. The ability of these dense CNTs to dissipate energy, while withstanding such elevated loads, is highly promising for energy-absorbing applications, especially in MEMS devices.
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