Coalescence of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
M. Terrones,
1*
H. Terrones,
12
F. Banhart,
3
J.-C. Charlier,
4
P. M. Ajayan
5
The coalescence of single-walled nanotubes is studied in
situ under electron irradiation at high temperature in a transmission electron microscope. The merging process is investigated at the atomic
level, using tight-binding molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo
simulations. Vacancies induce coalescence via a zipper-like mechanism,
imposing a continuous reorganization of atoms on individual tube
lattices along adjacent tubes. Other topological defects induce the
polymerization of tubes. Coalescence seems to be restricted to tubes
with the same chirality, explaining the low frequency of occurrence of
this event.
1 Instituto de Física, UNAM,
Laboratorio Juriquilla, Apartado Postal 1-1010, 76000 Querétaro,
Qro., México.
2 School of Chemistry, Physics
and Environmental Science, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK.
3 Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung,
Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
4 Université Catholique de Louvain,
Unité de Physico-Chimie et de Physique des Matériaux, Place
Croix du Sud 1, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
5 Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590, USA.
*
Present address: Max-Planck-Institut für
Metallforschung, Seestrasse 92, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
terrones{at}fenix.ifisicacu.unam.mx
Present address: Sektion Elektronenmikroskopie,
Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany.
