An analogy between the adhesion of liquid drops and single-walled nanotubes

This paper establishes an analogy between the adhesion of liquid drops and single-walled nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are found to be "superhydrophobic" for radii smaller than similar to 6 angstrom, whereas the "hydrophobic/hydrophilic" transition takes place at a radius of similar to 16 angstrom. The liquid drop analogy provides simple laws for treating the complex problem of the adhesion of highly deformed single-walled nanotubes. We compare our findings with atomistic or continuum simulations and elastica solutions, finding a relevant agreement. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.