An ab initio study of the size-dependent mechanical behavior of single-walled AlN nanotubes

•The AlN nanotubes construction based on the two dimensional layer rolling is adopted.•The mechanical properties of the Young's modulus constant in SWALNNTs have been considered.•The elastic properties of SWALNNTs are calculated with different sizes and structures.

Employing ab initio electronic structure calculations combined with the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) we have investigated a size dependence of mechanical behavior in single-walled AlN nanotubes with armchair and zigzag forms. A simple procedure of nanotubes construction based on the wurtzite (0 0 1) slab with monolayer rolling and subsequent cylindrical coordinate system introduction is suggested. The present calculations indicate that the Young's modulus and electronic band gap of these tubes are increased monotonically as the radius increases, but decreases with the Al–N bond length. In addition, the amount of charge transfer calculated by the Mulliken's population analysis is introduced to explain clearly the strength of bonding between Al and N atoms in single-walled AlN nanotubes.

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