Novel Polygonized Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Bundles

M. J. López; A. Rubio; J. A. Alonso; L.-C. Qin; S. Iijima

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3056

Novel Polygonized Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Bundles

M. J. López, A. Rubio, J. A. Alonso, L.-C. Qin, and S. Iijima

Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3056 – Published 2 April 2001

Abstract

We have synthesized novel crystalline ropes of “polygonized” single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The tubes exhibit rounded-hexagonal cross sections in contrast to the earlier observations of nearly circular tubes. To investigate the structural characteristics of the lattice of SWCNTs we have performed extensive molecular-dynamics simulations. We find several metastable structures of the lattice characterized by different tube cross sections, hexagonal, rounded-hexagonal, and circular, and increasing cell volume. The competition between different tube shapes as a function of tube diameter is analyzed and compared to experiments.

Received 31 July 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3056

Authors & Affiliations

M. J. López^1,*, A. Rubio¹, J. A. Alonso¹, L.-C. Qin², and S. Iijima^2,3,4

¹Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad de Valladolid, E-47011 Valladolid, Spain
²JST-ICORP Nanotubulite Project, c/o NEC Corporation, 34 Miyukigaoka, Tsukuba 305-8501, Japan
³R & D Group, NEC Corporation, 34 Miyukigaoka, Tsukuba 305-8501, Japan
⁴Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Meijo University, Tenpaku-ku, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan