Open AccessStructure and thermal stability of gold nanowire encapsulated in carbon nanotube
Author(s) -
Kaiwang Zhang,
Lijun Meng,
Jun Li,
Wenliang Li,
Yi Tang,
Jianxin Zhong
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
wuli xuebao
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 47
ISSN - 1000-3290
DOI - 10.7498/aps.57.4347
Subject(s) - nanowire , materials science , carbon nanotube , nanotube , thermal stability , annealing (glass) , molecular dynamics , nanotechnology , melting temperature , shell (structure) , composite material , chemical engineering , computational chemistry , chemistry , engineering
The structure and thermal stability of gold nanowire encapsulated in single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) were studied by molecular dynamics simulations. A (8,8) SWCNT was used as a model system and the simulated annealing method was employed to find the stable structure of the gold nanowire at room temperature. Ourresults show that the gold nanowire encapsulated in a (8,8) SWCNT has a cylindrical shape and a helical shell structure. The helical-shell nanowire is thermally stable at temperatures much higher than the melting temperature of its bulk counterpart and is different from the gold nanowire formed in free space without the nanotube envelope. We also found that the spiral nanowire undergoes structural changes at higher temperatures.