Geometric structure of ultra-small carbon nanotubes

Date

2008

Authors

Cox, B.
Hill, J.

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Journal article

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Carbon, 2008; 46(4):711-713

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Barry J. Cox, James M. Hill

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Abstract

This letter presents the geometric structure of carbon nanotubes with radii less than 1.7 Å, based on the new polyhedral model [1], and in the limit of decreasing radius some unusual and rather counterintuitive geometric structures arise. Recently several groups have been successful in producing very smaller carbon nanotubes in restricted environments, such as nanotubes with 2 Å radii in zeolite channels [2] and others with a radii of 1.5 Å produced within the center of multi-walled carbon nanotubes [3]. It has also been reported that these small nanotubes might exhibit new properties [4], and they have the potential to be very useful in the design of nanoelectro mechanical devices. It has also been suggested [5] that high-curvature nanotube like structures can be formed from sp3 carbon by fixing a single ligand to every participating carbon atom. As will be seen, the bond angle of the small carbon nanotube structures examined here are very close to the usual value of sp3 carbon and therefore this provides another possible motivation to examine the structures described here.

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© 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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