This study investigated influences of vacancy defects on buckling behaviors of open-tip carbon nanocones (CNCs) by molecular dynamics simulations. Effects of vacancy location and temperature on the buckling behaviors were examined in the study. Some interesting findings were attained from the investigations. It was noticed that the CNC with an upper vacancy has comparable degradation in the critical strain and in the critical load with the CNC with a middle vacancy, whereas the CNC with a lower vacancy has lower degradation in the antibuckling ability than the above two CNCs. The antibuckling ability of the CNCs reduces with the growth of the temperature. This temperature effect is more apparent in the perfect CNC than in the vacancy-defect CNCs. It was also observed that the degradation in the antibuckling ability is obvious at a lower temperature, but it decreases as the temperature grows. Besides, all the CNCs (including the perfect and the vacancy-defect CNCs) exhibited a shrinking/swelling buckling mode shape at the studied temperatures. Existence of the vacancies did not alter the buckling mode shape of the CNCs.

Critical loads studies (critical load is ‘a quantitative estimate of an exposure to one or more pollutants below which no harmful effects may occur’) have been used as the basis for assessing European strategies for reduction of sulphur emissions within the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). It is expected that the critical loads method will be applied to future international agreements under the Convention. Mapping of European critical loads conducted for the LRTAP Convention have progressed notably in recent years.

The concept of designing pollution control measures with the aim of protecting the most sensitive ecosystems, led to the creation of the Task Force on Mapping and Coordination Centre for Effects to implement these concepts on a European scale together with the corresponding National Focal Centres. The Russian National Focal Centre is used to illustrate how critical load data can be applied at the scale of a large country.

The policy implications resulting from the methods described in this review would support the development of an acidification protocol. While this has been suggested in the past, it is only now that scientific knowledge has advanced sufficiently to consider the feasibility of such a policy.