Interlayer attraction force in concentric carbon nanotubes

The interlayer attraction force between concentric carbon nanotubes (CNTs) plays an important role in CNT-based nanodevices. However, the precise measurement of the interlayer attraction force remains to date a challenge. Although theoretical investigations have identified the dependence of the interlayer attraction force on the tube radius, no explicit relation for such dependence has been established so far. Here, based on an analytical model, we find that the interlayer attraction force between two telescoping concentric CNTs is proportional to the mean (but not the inner nor the outer) radius of the contacting two tubes and consequently propose an explicit expression that relates the interlayer attraction force with the mean radius as well as the interlayer spacing. We also implement the effect of temperature in the present expression based on the linear dependence of the attraction force on temperature. The present expression can be compared with the existing theoretical and experimental results, offering an efficient way to evaluate the interlayer attraction force in the nanodevices composed of concentric CNTs.