Article Title
Spontaneous twisting of a collapsed carbon nanotube
Authors
Hamid Reza Barzegar, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Department of Physics, Umea University, 90187 Umea, Sweden
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Aiming Yan, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Sinisa Coh, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Eduardo Gracia-Espino, Department of Physics, Umea University, 90187 Umea, Sweden
Claudia Ojeda- Aristizabal, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Gabriel Dunn, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Marvin L. Cohen, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Steven G. Louie, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Thomas Wgberg, Department of Physics, Umea University, 90187 Umea, Sweden
Alex Zettl, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Keywords
multi-walled carbon nanotube, collapsed carbon nanotube, in situ TEM, electron diffraction, twisting, graphene nanoribbons
Abstract
ABSTRACT We study the collapsing and subsequent spontaneous twisting of a carbon nanotube by in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A custom-sized nanotube is first created in the microscope by selectively extracting shells from a parent multi-walled tube. The few-walled, large-diameter daughter nanotube is driven to collapse via mechanical stimulation, after which the ribbon-like collapsed tube spontaneously twists along its long axis. In situ diffraction experiments fully characterize the uncollapsed and collapsed tubes. The experimental observations and associated theoretical analysis indicate that the origin of the twisting is compressive strain.
Graphical Abstract

Publisher
Tsinghua University Press
Recommended Citation
Hamid Reza Barzegar,Aiming Yan,Sinisa Coh,Eduardo Gracia-Espino,Claudia Ojeda-Aristizabal,Gabriel Dunn,Marvin L. Cohen,Steven G. Louie,Thomas Wågberg,Alex Zettl, Spontaneous twisting of a collapsed carbon nanotube. NanoRes.2017, 10(6): 1942–1949