A modified method for elastic properties of nanowires based on surface effect.

In this paper, a modified method for predicting surface effect parameters based on experimental data is developed using the surface effect theory. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanowires with diameters in a range of 100 nm to 320 nm are manufactured by electrospinning. The data of the effective elastic moduli of PAN nanowire varying with diameters are obtained by experimenting with contact atomic-force microscopy (C-AFM). It was found that the effective Young's modulus of nanowires increased with the diameter of the nanowires decreases. The validity of the method in this paper are confirmed by comparing with the existing work. By taking into account the effect of surface energy on the bending, the deviation of the prediction of surface effect parameters in the existing work is solved. The current results will also be useful for predicting nanowire surface effect parameters and be helpful for the design of nanostructures and nanodevices related to nanowires.