Changes in single-walled carbon nanotube chirality during growth and regrowth

Abstract

A simple model for joining two single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with different, arbitrary chiralities is used to systematically label junction structures which contain pentagon-heptagon pairs. The model is also used, together with density functional theory, to study the energetics of diameter and chirality changes of thin SWNTs during catalyzed growth or regrowth. We choose zigzag and armchair SWNTs attached to a Ni(55) cluster for our case studies.