Strong current in carbon nanoconductors: Mechanical and magnetic stability

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to analyze how strong electrical currents affect the mechanical and magnetic properties of various carbon nanoconductors, revealing minimal impact on bond strength but significant magnetic changes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of the effects of strong current on the mechanical stability and magnetic properties of carbon nanostructures, highlighting the magnetic quenching in graphene edges.

Findings

Current has little effect on bond strength in carbon nanoconductors.

Strong currents significantly alter magnetic properties, especially quenching magnetism in graphene edge states.

Carbon nanoconductors maintain mechanical stability under high current conditions.

Abstract

Carbon nanoconductors are known to have extraordinary mechanical strength and interesting magnetic properties. Moreover, nanoconductors based on one- or two-dimensional carbon allotropes display a very high current-carrying capacity and ballistic transport. Here, we employ a recent, simple approach based on density functional theory to analyze the impact of strong current on the mechanical and magnetic properties of carbon nanoconductors. We find that the influence of the current itself on the bond-strength of carbon in general is remarkably low compared to e.g. typical metals. This is demonstrated for carbon chains, carbon nanotubes, graphene and polyacetylene. We can trace this to the strong binding and electronic bandstructure. On the other hand, we find that the current significanly change the magnetic properties. In particular, we find that currents in graphene zig-zag edge states quench the magnetism.