title: New insights into the properties and interactions of carbon chains as revealed by HRTEM and DFT analysis.
abstract: Atomic carbon chains have raised interest for their possible applications as graphene interconnectors as the thinnest nanowires; however, they are hard to synthesize and subsequently to study. We present here a reproducible method to synthesize carbon chainsin situTEM. Moreover, we present a direct observation of the bond length alternation in a pure carbon chain by aberration corrected TEM. Also, cross bonding between two carbon chains, 5 nm long, is observed experimentally and confirmed by DFT calculations. Finally, while free standing carbon chains were observed to be straight due to tensile loading, a carbon chain inside the walls of a carbon nanotube showed high flexibility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Casillas
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Microscopias Avanzadas (LMA), Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragon, Universidad de Zaragoza, Mariano Esquillor, Edificio I+D, 50015, Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mayoral
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77005.
authors.forename: Mingjie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponce
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77005.
authors.forename: Vasilii I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Artyukhov
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77005.
authors.forename: Boris I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Yakobson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jose-Yacaman