Chirality-Dependent Growth Rate of Carbon Nanotubes - A Theoretical Study

TL;DR

This theoretical study investigates how the chirality of carbon nanotubes influences their growth rate, revealing that external parameters can affect their chirality distribution, with results aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a minimalistic theoretical model linking nanotube chirality, growth barriers, and temperature to growth rates and distribution.

Findings

Growth rate depends on rim structure and energy barriers.

Chirality distribution can be influenced by external parameters.

Model predictions agree with experimental observations.

Abstract

We consider geometric constraints for the addition of carbon atoms to the rim of a growing nanotube. The growth of a tube proceeds through the conversion of dangling bonds from armchair to zigzag and vice versa. We find that the growth rate depends on the rim structure (chirality), the energy barriers for dangling bond conversion, and the growth temperature. A calculated chirality distribution derived from this minimalistic theory shows surprisingly good agreement with experiment. Our ideas imply that the chirality distribution of carbon nanotubes can be influenced by external parameters.