Effects of chirality and surface stresses on the bending and buckling of chiral nanowires

Due to their superior optical, elastic and electrical properties, chiral nanowires have many applications as sensors, probes, and building blocks of nanoelectromechanical systems. In this paper, we develop a refined Euler-Bernoulli beam model for chiral nanowires with surface effects and material chirality incorporated. This refined model is employed to investigate the bending and buckling of chiral nanowires. It is found that surface effects and material chirality significantly affect the elastic behaviour of chiral nanowires. This study is helpful not only for understanding the size-dependent behaviour of chiral nanowires, but also for characterizing their mechanical properties.