Nucleation of single wall carbon nanotubes of various chiralities

2011/11/24 by Francois Beuneu, Beuneu, Francois
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1111.5788

8 pages, 7 figures

arxiv created 2012/03/23 · arxiv updated 2012/03/26

Abstract

A simple model for the nucleation and growth of single wall carbon nanotubes from a graphene sheet at the surface of a metallic catalyst saturated in carbon is developed. It enables to predict the geometry and energy of tube embryos of all possible chiralities, as well as the way that they can grow. It is shown that armchair-like chiralities are energy preferred for geometrical reasons. This result is discussed and compared to experimental literature.

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