Surface tension effect on the mechanical properties of nanomaterials measured by atomic force microscopy

The effect of reduced size on the elastic properties measured on silver and lead nanowires and on polypyrrole nanotubes with an outer diameter ranging between 30 and 250 nm is presented and discussed. Resonant-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to measure their apparent elastic modulus. The measured modulus of the nanomaterials with smaller diameters is significantly higher than that of the larger ones. The latter is comparable to the macroscopic modulus of the materials. The increase of the apparent elastic modulus for the smaller diameters is attributed to surface tension effects. The surface tension of the probed material may be experimentally determined from these AFM measurements.