Toroidal Carbon Nanotubes with Encapsulated Atomic Metal Loops

TL;DR

This study explores the properties of toroidal carbon nanotubes with encapsulated atomic metal loops, revealing their potential for novel electromagnetic applications due to unique electronic and magnetic characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of toroidal carbon nanotube composites with encapsulated metal loops analyzed via density functional theory, highlighting their electronic and magnetic properties.

Findings

Encapsulated metal loops form zigzag structures within toroidal nanotubes.

The composites exhibit a reduced HOMO/LUMO bandgap below 0.1 eV.

Iron composites are ferromagnetic with magnetic moments similar to bulk iron.

Abstract

Toroidal carbon nanotubes can serve as hosts for encapsulated loops of atomic metal wires. Such composite structures have been analyzed using density functional theory for a semiconducting C$_{120}$ torus encapsulating chains of Fe, Au and Cu atoms. The sheathed metal necklaces form a zigzag structure and drops the HOMO/LUMO bandgap to less than 0.1 eV. The iron composite is ferromagnetic with a magnetic moment essentially the same as that of bcc iron. The azimuthal symmetry of these toroidal composites suggests that they may offer novel elecromagnetic properties not associated with straight, metal-encapsulated carbon nanotubes.