Would diamond nanorods be stronger than fullerene nanotubes? Nano Lett

On the basis of literature ab initio data, we show that diamond nanorods would have a brittle fracture force and a zero strain stiffness that exceeds carbon nanotubes for radii greater than about 1−3 nm, depending on the orientation of the diamond nanorod. The energetic stability of diamond nanorods is predicted by molecular modeling to be comparable to single-walled carbon nanotubes. It is concluded that diamond nanorods represent an important and viable target structure for synthesis. With its exceedingly high bulk modulus and hardness, diamond has historically been considered the strongest material. Recently, however, it has been claimed based on both theory and experiment that carbon nanotubes are both stiffer and stronger along their axis than diamond. A problem with this claim is that it is difficult to make a fair comparison between these two representatives from the macro- and nanoscales unless some additional assumptions about their structure are made, for example an effective “thickness ” of a sheet of carbon atoms comprising a nanotube