Oscillation of carbon molecules inside carbon nanotube bundles

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the mechanics of a nanoscaled gigahertz oscillator comprising acarbon molecule oscillating within the centre of a uniform concentric ring or bundle of carbonnanotubes. Two kinds of oscillating molecules are considered, which are a carbon nanotube and aC60 fullerene. Using the Lennard-Jones potential and the continuum approach, weobtain a relation between the bundle radius and the radii of the nanotubesforming the bundle, as well as the optimum bundle size which gives rise tothe maximum oscillatory frequency for both the nanotube–bundle and theC60–bundle oscillators. While previous studies in this area have been undertaken throughmolecular dynamics simulations, this paper emphasizes the use of applied mathematicalmodelling techniques, which provides considerable insight into the underlying mechanismsof the nanoscaled oscillators. The paper presents a synopsis of the major results derived indetail by the present authors (Cox et al 2007 Proc. R. Soc. A 464 691–710 and Cox et al 2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 13197–208).