Buckling behaviors of single-walled carbon nanotubes filled with metal atoms

Molecular dynamics method is employed to investigate the buckling deformations of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) filled with nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and platinum (Pt) atoms under axial compression. The critical buckling strains of filled tubes decrease linearly before a critical number of metal atoms and then increase linearly when more atoms are encapsulated. For SWCNT completely filled with metals, its critical strain is larger than that of the hollow tube. Furthermore, the critical strain of SWCNT completely filled with Ni atoms is larger than that of the tube fully filled with Cu or Pt atoms. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.