Single-walled carbon nanotubes functionalized by a series of dichlorocarbenes: DFT study

The structural and elastic properties of neutral and ionized dichlorocarbene (CCl2) functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were studied using density functional theory (DFT). The Young's modulus of ionized pristine SWCNTs is found to decrease in comparison to that of neutral models. The interesting effect of increase in Young's modulus values of ionized functionalized SWCNTs is observed. We ascribe this feature to the concurrent processes of the bond elongation on ionization and the local deformation on cycloaddition. The strong dependence of the elasticity modulus on the number of addends is also observed. However, the CCl2-attached SWCNTs in their neutral and ionized forms remain strong enough to be suitable for the reinforcement of composites. In contrast to the elastic properties, the binding energies do not change significantly, irrespective of CCl2 coverage.