| Abstract
| - Aqueous suspensions of length selected single-walled carbon nanotubes were studied by atomic forcemicroscopy (AFM) in order to probe the influence of sonication on nanotube scission. The maximum of thetube length distribution, lM, initially exhibits a power law dependence on the sonication time, t roughly aslM ≈ t-0.5. This and the limiting behavior observed at longer times can be rationalized to first order in termsof a continuum model deriving from polymer physics. In this picture, the strain force associated with cavitationscales with the square of the nanotube length. Scission stops when the strain force falls below the criticalvalue for nanotube disruption.
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