The peeling behavior of nanowires and carbon nanotubes from a substrate using continuum modeling

The peeling behavior of different nanowires or single-walled/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from a substrate is studied by using the Kendall model of the continuum mechanics, where a basic assumption is that the deformation of the part of the nanowire/nanotube attached to the substrate under peeling force is ignored. The cohesive energy between a nanowire (or a CNT) and a substrate is obtained through continuum modeling of the van der Waals interaction, which has high accuracy by comparison of our molecular dynamics simulations. Our analytical results show that the peeling behavior strongly depends on the peeling angle, the pre-tension, the separation distance toward the substrate, the radius, and the Young's modulus of the nanowire (or the CNT). In particular, the peeling forces with a generalized peeling model in the steady-state stage are compared with those of the classical Kendall model. In the generalized peeling model, the effect of the bending stiffness and cohesive energy between the bending nanowire and the substrate on peeling forces is considered. The obtained analytical solution should be of great help for understanding the interaction between the nanostructures and the substrates, and designing nanoelectromechanical systems.