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

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.     

Effect of curvature and chirality for hydrogen storage in single-walled carbon nanotubes: a combined ab initio and Monte Carlo investigation

Combined ab initio and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to investigate the dependence of hydrogen storage in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on both tube curvature and chirality. The ab initio calculations at the density functional level of theory can provide useful information about the nature of hydrogen adsorption in SWCNT selected sites and the binding under different curvatures and chiralities of the tube walls. Further to this, the grand canonical Monte Carlo atomistic simulation technique can model large-scale nanotube systems with different curvature and chiralities and reproduce their storage capacity by calculating the weight percentage of the adsorbed material (gravimetric density) under thermodynamic conditions of interest. The author's results have shown that with both computational techniques, the nanotube's curvature plays an important role in the storage process while the chirality of the tube plays none.     

Polymer chains in a soft nanotube: a Monte Carlo study

We study the equilibrium properties of flexible polymer chains confined in a soft tube by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The tube wall is that of a single sheet six-coordinated self-avoiding tethered membrane. Our study assumes that there is no adsorption of the chain on the wall. By varying the length N of the polymer and the tube diameter D we examine the variation of the polymer gyration radius Rg and diffusion coefficient Ddiff in soft and rigid tubes of identical diameter and compare them to scaling theory predictions. We find that the swollen region of the soft tube surrounding the chain exhibits a cigarlike cylindrical shape for sufficiently narrow tubes with D相似文献   

Constrained iron catalysts for single-walled carbon nanotube growth

The diameter of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) determines the electronic properties of the nanotube. The diameter of carbon nanotubes is dictated by the diameter of the catalyst particle. Here we describe the use of iron nanoparticles synthesized within the Dps protein cage as catalysts for the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The discrete iron particles synthesized within the Dps protein cages when used as catalyst particles gives rise to single-walled carbon nanotubes with a limited diameter distribution.     

Monte Carlo simulations of hydrogen adsorption in alkali-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes

Monte Carlo simulations and Widom's test particle insertion method have been used to calculate the solubility coefficients (S) and the adsorption equilibrium constants (K) in single-walled (10,10) armchair carbon nanotubes including single nanotubes, and nanotube bundles with various configurations with and without alkali dopants. The hydrogen adsorption isotherms at room temperature were predicted by following the Langmuir adsorption model using the calculated constants S and K. The simulation results were in good agreement with experimental data as well as the grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation results reported in the literature. The simulations of nanotube bundle configurations suggest that the gravimetric hydrogen adsorption increases with internanotube gap size. It may be attributed to favorable hydrogen-nanotube interactions outside the nanotubes. The effect of alkali doping on hydrogen adsorption was studied by incorporating K+ or Li+ ions into nanotube arrays using a Monte Carlo simulation. The results on hydrogen adsorption isotherms indicate hydrogen adsorption of 3.95 wt% for K-doping, and 4.21 wt% for Li-doping, in reasonable agreement with the experimental results obtained at 100 atm and room temperature.     

Theory and experiment agree: single-walled carbon nanotube caps grow catalyst-free with chirality preference on a SiC surface

High-temperature quantum chemical molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on model systems of thin SiC crystal surfaces with two graphene sheets placed on top of either C or Si face. In agreement with experiment, we find that (a) the C-face-attached graphene layer warps readily to form small diameter, stable nanocaps, suitable for further perpendicular growth of nanotubes, (b) the Si-face-attached graphene sheet does not readily wrap and forms more volatile Si-graphene bonds, and (c) C face nanocaps appear to anneal to dome-shape structures with zigzag chirality.     

Titanium coverage on a single-wall carbon nanotube: molecular dynamics simulations

The minimum energy structures of Ti covered (8,0) single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) have been investigated theoretically. Using available experimental data and the results of density functional theory calculations, we first parametrized a reliable empirical many-body potential energy function (PEF) for the CTi binary system. The PEF used in the calculations includes two- and three-body atomic interactions. Then performing molecular dynamics simulations at 1 and 300 K, we obtained the minimum-energy configurations for Ti covered (8,0)-SWNT. The configurations reported here include low and high coverage of Ti on nanotubes. We have found that one layer of Ti did not distort the nanotube significantly, whereas two-layer coverage showed an interesting feature: the second layer of Ti pushed the first layer inside the wall of nanotube, but the general shape of the nanotube was not affected so much.     

Application of single-walled carbon nanotube body to unique emitter: a first-principles study

The field emission characteristics of the body for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are investigated by use of the first-principles calculations. We find that field emission property, chemical stability and binding energy of the tube body with the practical diameter are less sensitive to the tube diameter, morphology, and conductive characteristic, and conclude the emission features of the body film: consistence in emission sites, uniformity in emission energy distribution, predictability in emission effects and high emission stability, which are similar to those of graphite sheet or diamond film. These unique features guarantee the tube body to be applicable to flat panel displays with the same picture quality, cylindrical cathode and linear emitter.     

Rational concept to recognize/extract single-walled carbon nanotubes with a specific chirality

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have remarkable and unique electronic, mechanical, and thermal properties, which are closely related to their chiralities; thus, the chirality-selective recognition/extraction of the SWNTs is one of the central issues in nanotube science. However, any rational materials design enabling one to efficiently extract/solubilize pure SWNT with a desired chirality has yet not been demonstrated. Herein we report that certain chiral polyfluorene copolymers can well-recognize SWNTs with a certain chirality preferentially, leading to solubilization of specific chiral SWNTs. The chiral copolymers were prepared by the Ni(0)-catalyzed Yamamoto coupling reaction of 2,7-dibromo-9,9-di-n-decylfluorene and 2,7-dibromo-9,9-bis[(S)-(+)-2-methylbutyl]fluorene comonomers. The selectivity of the SWNT chirality was mainly determined by the relative fraction of the achiral and chiral side groups. By a molecular mechanics simulation, the cooperative interaction between the fluorene moiety, alkyl side chain, and graphene wall were responsible for the recognition/dissolution ability of SWNT chirality. This is a first example describing the rational design and synthesis of novel fluorene-based copolymers toward the recognition/extraction of targeted (n,?m) chirality of the SWNTs.     

Comparative molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo study of statistical properties for coarse-grained heteropolymers

Employing a simple hydrophobic-polar heteropolymer model, we compare thermodynamic quantities obtained from Andersen and Nosé-Hoover molecular dynamics as well as replica-exchange Monte Carlo methods. We find qualitative correspondence in the results, but serious quantitative differences using the Nosé-Hoover chain thermostat. For analyzing the deviations, we study different parameterizations of the Nosé-Hoover chain thermostat. Autocorrelations from molecular dynamics and Metropolis Monte Carlo runs are also investigated.     

Mechanism of the initial stages of nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotube growth

We have studied the mechanism of the initial stages of nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotube growth illustrated for the case of a floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition system, which uses carbon monoxide (CO) and ammonia (NH(3)) as precursors and iron as a catalyst. We performed first-principles electronic-structure calculations, fully incorporating the effects of spin polarization and magnetic moments, to investigate the bonding and chemistry of CO, NH(3), and their fragments on a model Fe(55) icosahedral cluster. A possible dissociation path for NH(3) to atomic nitrogen and hydrogen was identified, with a reaction barrier consistent with an experimentally determined value we measured by tandem infrared and mass spectrometry. Both C-C and C-N bond formation reactions were found to be barrierless and exothermic, while a parasitic reaction of HCN formation had a barrier of over 1 eV.     

Integrated single-walled carbon nanotube/microfluidic devices for the study of the sensing mechanism of nanotube sensors

A method to fabricate integrated single-walled carbon nanotube/microfluidic devices was developed. This simple process could be used to directly prepare nanotube thin film transistors within the microfluidic channel and to register SWNT devices with the microfludic channel without the need of an additional alignment step. The microfluidic device was designed to have several inlets that deliver multiple liquid flows to a single main channel. The location and width of each flow in the main channel could be controlled by the relative flow rates. This capability enabled us to study the effect of the location and the coverage area of the liquid flow that contained charged molecules on the conduction of the nanotube devices, providing important information on the sensing mechanism of carbon nanotube sensors. The results showed that in a sensor based on a nanotube thin film field effect transistor, the sensing signal came from target molecules absorbed on or around the nanotubes. The effect from adsorption on metal electrodes was weak.     

Structural characterization of single-walled carbon nanotube bundles by experiment and molecular simulation

A procedure, combining molecular simulation, Raman spectroscopy, and standard nitrogen adsorption, is developed for structural characterization of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) samples. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of nitrogen adsorption are performed on the external and internal adsorption sites of homogeneous arrays of SWNTs of diameters previously determined by Raman spectroscopy of the sample. The results show the importance of the peripheral grooves of a nanotube bundle at low relative pressure and the insensitivity of nanotube diameter toward adsorption on the external surface of the bundle at higher pressures. Simulations also reveal that samples containing thin nanotubes have less internal adsorption capacity that saturates at lower pressure than those comprising large diameter nanotubes. The fraction of open-ended nanotubes in a sample can be estimated by scaling the simulated internal adsorption inside nanotubes to obtain a near perfect fit between simulated and experimental isotherms. This procedure allows extrapolation of adsorption properties to conditions in which all nanotubes in the sample are open-ended.     

Monte Carlo vs molecular dynamics for all-atom polypeptide folding simulations

An efficient Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm including concerted rotations is directly compared to molecular dynamics (MD) in all-atom statistical mechanics folding simulations of small polypeptides. The previously reported algorithm "concerted rotations with flexible bond angles" (CRA) has been shown to successfully locate the native state of small polypeptides. In this study, the folding of three small polypeptides (trpzip2/H1/Trp-cage) is investigated using MC and MD, for a combined sampling time of approximately 10(11) MC configurations and 8 micros, respectively. Both methods successfully locate the experimentally determined native states of the three systems, but they do so at different speed, with 2-2.5 times faster folding of the MC runs. The comparison reveals that thermodynamic and dynamic properties can reliably be obtained by both and that results from folding simulations do not depend on the algorithm used. Similar to previous comparisons of MC and MD, it is found that one MD integration step of 2 fs corresponds to one MC scan, revealing the good sampling of MC. The simplicity and efficiency of the MC method will enable its future use in folding studies involving larger systems and the combination with replica exchange algorithms.     

Solvent effects on tamoxifen molecule interacting with a single-walled carbon nanotube: a theoretical NMR study

Quantum chemical calculations of the electronic structure of tamoxifen molecule interacting with an open end of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) were carried out and the effects of solvents (water, methanol, DMSO, acetone) on the ¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N, and ¹⁷O NMR parameters were studied by the GIAO-HF/STO-3G, GIAO-HF/3-21G, and GIAO/B1LYP/3-21G methods using the GAUSSIAN-98 program. The largest σ_iso value was obtained for acetone, whereas the smallest one for water. The opposite trend was obtained for the shielding asymmetry η. According to calculations, atoms at interaction site bear negative charges. The O(43) and N(38) atoms produce negative charge because they have high electron affinities. The dipole moment of tamoxifen molecule in different solvents increases with increasing the dielectric constant of the solvent. The largest dipole moment value was obtained for water by the B1LYP/3-21G method.     

H2 adsorption on Ag‐nanocluster/single‐walled carbon nanotube composites: A molecular dynamics study on the effects of nanocluster size,diameter, and chirality of nanotube

The H₂ physisorption on Ag_N (with N = 32, 108, 256, 500, and 864)/carbon nanotube (CNT; in armchair and zigzag structures with diameters between 0.54 and 2.98 nm) composites were studied by molecular dynamic simulation to investigate the effect of nanocluster size, diameter, and chirality of nanotube on the adsorption phenomena. The calculations indicate that the effects of nanocluster properties are more important than those of the nanotube, in such a way that increase of nanocluster size, decreases the H₂ adsorption. Also, the diameter and chirality of CNTs have considerable influence on the adsorption phenomena. As the diameter of nanotube is increased, the amount of adsorption is decreased. Moreover, H₂ molecules have more tendencies to those nanoclusters located on the armchair nanotubes than the zigzag ones. Another important result is the reversibility of H₂ adsorption on these materials in which the structure of composite in vacuum and after reduction of H₂ pressure to zero, is not changed, considerably. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Spectroscopic investigation of conjugated polymer/single-walled carbon nanotube interactions

Composite materials, based on single-walled carbon nanotubes and a poly(p-phenylene vinylene) derivative, show an interaction between the components capable of solubilising the nanotubes, which has not been otherwise achieved. Here these materials are characterised by electron microscopy, and optical and vibrational spectroscopy. The spectroscopic behaviour of the polymer is seen to be dramatically affected, which is attributed to conformational changes due to the effect of the nanotubes.     

Glass transition of polymer/single-walled carbon nanotube composite films

The glass-transition temperatures (T_g's) of nanocomposites of polystyrene (PS) and single-walled carbon nanotubes were measured in the bulk and in thin films with differential scanning calorimetry and spectroscopic ellipsometry, respectively. The bulk T_g of the nanocomposites increased by approximately 3 °C and became much broader than that of PS. For the nanocomposite films thinner than 45 nm, T_g decreased with decreasing film thickness [i.e., ΔT_g(nano) < 0]. This phenomenon also occurred in thin PS films, the magnitude of the depression in PS [ΔT_g(PS)] being somewhat larger. The film thickness dependence and the differences in the magnitude of ΔT_g in the two systems were examined in light of current theory, and a quantitative comparison was made. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 3339–3345, 2003     

Cobalt-filled apoferritin for suspended single-walled carbon nanotube growth with narrow diameter distribution

Cobalt-filled apoferritin (Co-ferritin) was, for the first time, used as a wet catalyst for the synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with narrow diameter distribution. Co-ferritins were spin-coated and converted to cobalt nanoparticles by calcination. Using chemical vapor deposition, suspended networks of SWNTs were formed on pillar-structured substrates. The suspended SWNTs show narrow tube diameter distribution with a relatively good graphite structure. By virtue of the low diffusion coefficient of cobalt, Co-ferritin might be more useful for narrow diameter SWNTs growth than ferritins, which encase iron particles.