Although as-grown carbon nanotubes have relatively few defects, defects can appear at the purification stage or be deliberately introduced by irradiation with energetic particles or by chemical treatment when aiming at the desired functionality. The defects, especially vacancies, give also rise to a deleterious effect—deterioration of axial mechanical properties of nanotubes. By employing molecular dynamics simulations and continuum theory we study how the Young’s modulus and tensile strength of nanotubes with vacancy-related defects depend on the concentration of defects and defect characteristics. We derive an analytical expression, with coefficients parametrized from atomistic computer simulations, which relates the Young’s modulus and defect density in carbon nanotubes. We further show that the tensile strength and critical strain of single-walled nanotubes decrease by nearly a factor of 2 if an unreconstructed vacancy is present. However, this deterioration in the mechanical characteristics is partly alleviated by the ability of nanotubes to heal vacancies in the atomic network by saturating dangling bonds.

Water plays a central role in the assembly and the dynamics of charged systems such as proteins, enzymes, DNA, and surfactants. Yet it remains a challenge to resolve how water affects relaxation at a molecular level, particularly for assemblies of oppositely charged macromolecules. Here, the molecular origin of water’s influence on the glass transition is quantified for several charged macromolecular systems. It is revealed that the glass transition temperature (T_g) is controlled by the number of water molecules surrounding an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte–polyelectrolyte intrinsic ion pair as 1/T_g ∼ ln(nH₂O/n_{intrinsic ion pair}). This relationship is found to be “general”, as it holds for two completely different types of charged systems (pH- and salt-sensitive) and for both polyelectrolyte complexes and polyelectrolyte multilayers, which are made by different paths. This suggests that water facilitates the relaxation of charged assemblies by reducing attractions between oppositely charged intrinsic ion pairs. This finding impacts current interpretations of relaxation dynamics in charged assemblies and points to water’s important contribution at the molecular level.