Nanostressing and mechanochemistry

Abstract

Experimental evidence supporting the heightened chemical reactivity of highly conformationally strained carbon sites in multi-walled carbon nanotubes is reported. The strain is introduced by two methods, van der Waals attractions to nonplanar surfaces and ultrasonic cavitation. Oxidative acid attack was observed in both cases, in the former by etching of the nanotubes' kinked sites, and in the latter by peptide coupling to polystyrene spheres that are large enough to be visible by SEM imaging. A novel single-axis straining stage for nanometre-scale objects is also described.