Why is the reported elastic modulus of carbon nanotube so scattered? “Yakobsons Paradox” and Perspective from Huang et. al.
For many mechanicians and materials scientists one of the most confounding things (in the ever increasing literature on carbon nanotubes) is the reported theoretical value of the nanotube elastic modulus. Depending upon the specific paper at hand, the reported numerical values range from 1 -6 TPa!