Every day in labs around the world, a technique using high-frequency sound waves — ultrasonication — is used to break up carbon nanotubes. But no one really understands the underlying mechanism. Kyung-Suk Kim at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and his collaborators have shed some light on the interplay between nanotubes and the minute bubbles created by the sound waves under water.

When the bubbles implode, tubes in the water near them are suddenly compressed along their lengths. The tubes buckle, and some atoms are knocked off, weakening the tube until it ultimately breaks.

Proc. R. Soc. A doi:10.1098/rspa.2010.0495 (2010)