Direct Measurement of the Friction between and Shear Moduli of Shells of Carbon Nanotubes

We report measurements of the shear modulus of each shell and the friction between the two shells of double-shell carbon nanotubes in single nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical devices operated in a transmission electron microscope. In situ nanobeam electron diffraction is applied to obtain the chiral indices of each shell of the nanotube and it allows us to establish a quantitative correlation between the atomic structure and properties of the nanotube under investigation