A study of the size-dependent elastic properties of ZnO nanowires and nanotubes

We present our calculations of the Young's modulus of ZnO nanowires and nanotubes by using the empirical Buckingham-type potential. Our results indicate that the Young's moduli of ZnO nanowires increase as the diameters decrease, and the Young's moduli of ZnO nanotubes increase as the thicknesses decrease. Furthermore, we find that such size-dependent elastic properties mainly arise from the lateral facets of the nanowires and nanotubes. In particular, for a ZnO nanotube with a thin wall, the Coulomb interaction between the ions of the outer and inner atomic layers plays an important role in the Young's moduli of the surface atomic layers.