Surface effects on the postbuckling of nanowires

Surface effects are important to predict the mechanical behaviour of nanostructures. In this paper, postbuckling of nanowires under uniaxial compression is investigated using an energy method by accounting for both the effects of surface elasticity and residual surface tension. The critical buckling strain and the amplitude of the buckled nanowire are obtained analytically. The results show that the surface effects reduce the amplitude and are negligible when the compressive strain is a few times larger than the critical buckling strain. This study might guide the design of the mechanical properties of microscale and nanoscale structures in wide applications.