Kinks, rings, and rackets in filamentous structures

TL;DR

This paper presents a continuum theory explaining how elastic and interfacial effects lead to kinked helices, rings, and racket shapes in filamentous structures like carbon nanotubes and biological filaments, emphasizing geometry over molecular details.

Contribution

It introduces a mesoscopic continuum model that predicts filament morphologies driven by elastic and interfacial interactions, highlighting geometry's role over molecular specifics.

Findings

The morphology is primarily determined by the slender geometry of filaments.

The continuum theory accurately predicts observed filament shapes.

The model suggests similar structures may occur in other filamentous systems.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes and biological filaments each spontaneously assemble into kinked helices, rings, and "tennis racket" shapes due to competition between elastic and interfacial effects. We show that the slender geometry is a more important determinant of the morphology than any molecular details. Our mesoscopic continuum theory is capable of quantifying observations of these structures, and is suggestive of their occurrence in other filamentous assemblies as well.