Mechanism and the Effect of Microwave-Carbon Nanotube Interaction

A series of experimental results about unusual heating of carbon nanotubes by microwaves is analyzed in this dissertation. Two of vibration types, cantilever type (one end is fixed and the other one end is free), the second type is both ends are fixed, have been studied by other people. A third type of forced vibration of carbon nanotubes under an alternating electromagnetic field is examined in this paper. Heating of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by microwaves is described in terms of nonlinear dynamics of a vibrating nanotube. Results from the model provide a way to understand several observations that have been made. It is shown that transverse vibrations of CNTs during microwave irradiation can be attributed to transverse parametric resonance, as occurs in the analysis of Melde's experiment on forced longitudinal vibrations of a stretched elastic string. For many kinds of carbon nanotubes (SWNT, DWNT, MWNT, ropes and strands) the resonant parameters are found to be located in an unstable region of the parameter space of Mathieu's equation. Third order wave equations are used to qualitatively describe the effects of phonon-phonon interactions and energy transfer from microwaves to CNTs. This result provides another way to input energy from microwaves to carbon nanotubes besides the usual Joule heating via electron-phonon interaction. This model appears to be the first to point out the role of nonlinear dynamics in the heating of CNTs by microwaves