title: Orientational melting in carbon nanotube ropes
abstract: Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the possibility of an orientational melting transition within a "rope" of carbon nanotubes. When twisting nanotubes bundle up during the synthesis, orientational dislocations or twistons arise from the competition between the anisotropic intertube interactions, which tend to align neighboring tubes, and the torsion rigidity that tends to keep individual tubes straight. We map the energetics of a rope containing twistons onto a lattice gas model and find that the onset of a free "diffusion" of twistons, corresponding to orientational melting, occurs at T(OM) greater, similar160 K.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Center for Fundamental Materials Research, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1116, USA.
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tomanek