Buckling of carbon nanotubes wrapped by polyethylene molecules

The discovery of a buckling instability of a single-walled carbon nanotube wrapped by a polyethylene molecule subjected to compression is reported through molecular mechanics simulations. A decrease up to 44% in the buckling strain of the nano-structure owing to the van der Waals interaction between the two molecules is uncovered. A continuum model is developed to calculate both the interaction between the tube and the polymer and the decreased buckling strain of the structure by fitting the molecular mechanics results.