Calculating Van der Waals Bonding Force of Carbon Nanotubes

  • Level: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter SkepticJ
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
1 reply · 2K views
SkepticJ
Messages
243
Reaction score
1
I hope I've put this in the right forum, if not, please move it.

I'm wanting to calculate the van der Waals bonding force/area of 1 cm^2 of "setae" carbon nanotubes that are 0.4nm(4 angstroms) in diameter. Such nanotubes are the smallest physically possible so that's what I want to go with. I want to use the Johnson–Kendall–Roberts adhesion theory to calculate the force/area, but I don't understand it. Would someone explain this math to me so that I may go about doing calculations? Thank you.

Another problem is that these nanotubes don't have a hemisphere end, because carbon atoms aren't much smaller than this. The tubes do end in a dome-like cap, but it's only composed of a few atoms, so won't conform to simply making the ends of the tubes as perfect hemispheres in the calculations. What can I do?
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
Hmmm, perhaps this was the wrong forum to post it in. Would one of the mods please move it to a better one? Thanks.:smile: