A
single-walled carbon nanotube grows from the round cap down, so it’s
logical to think the cap’s formation determines what follows. But
according to researchers at Rice University, that’s not entirely so.
Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his Rice colleagues found
through exhaustive analysis that those who wish to control the chirality
of nanotubes – the characteristic that determines their electrical
properties – would be wise to look at other aspects of their growth.
 |
| Carbon nanotube caps are forced into shape by six pentagons among the array of hexagons in the single-atom-thick tube. Rice University researchers took a census of thousands of possible caps and found the energies dedicated to their formation have no bearing on the tube’s ultimate chirality. (Credit: Evgeni Penev/Rice University) - |
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