title: Stability of supershort single-walled carbon nanotubes.
abstract: How short can single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) be? How stable are such supershort SWNTs (ss-SWNTs)? This work is the first to address these questions. On the basis of binding energy (E(B)), standard heats of formation , and strain energy (E(S)), we found that SWNTs with only one benzene ring in the axial direction, which we refer to as supershort SWNTs (ss-SWNTs), can be thermodynamically stable. On the basis of the data of E(B), , and E(S), the relative stabilities of ss-SWNTs, fullerenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and butadiyne are discussed. This study has laid a theoretical foundation for the possible synthesis of ss-SWNTs.
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Finnerty
authors.forename: G Q
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Cheng