Nanotube Mechanics Nanotube Mechanical Properties Carbon Nanotubes, both single walled and multi-walled, have been seen to exhibit unique properties in certain situations.
Nanotubes are very strong - one of the strongest materials, as a matter of fact.
Another example of the tubes bending is shown below. Here, the tube is forced to travel between 2 colloids that are sitting on the substrate. Instead of breaking, the tube bends in order to get through the gap of the colloids, and then returns to its elongated shape, with a little help from the AFM imaging. A carbon nanotube is manipulated among co-deposited 20nm gold colloidal particles. The particles remain fixed on the substrate, acting as constraints to the moving nanotube.