Tensile Tests on Individual Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Linking Nanotube Strength with Its Defects

The ultimate tensile strength of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is measured in a high-resolution TEM equipped with a conducting AFM unit. The values are correlated to every tube’s structural details. The strength of ∼100 GPa, approaching the theoretical limit for defect-free CNTs, is documented in tubes without visible defects; for those with spatially separated stepwise pentagon-heptagon defects, determining the breaking sites, it reduces to 40–70 GPa. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.