Some possible rules governing the syntheses and characteristics of nanotubes, particularly carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Universally true rules constitute the very foundation of modern science and engineering. They are, in fact, the backbones of modern science and engineering. Nanotubes are promising materials, and nanotube science and engineering do not yet, to our knowledge, have these rules. Attempts have been made to explore if nanotube syntheses and characteristics follow any rule. Simple theoretical calculations were performed. Results of these calculations suggest that there may indeed be well-defined rules for nanotubes. The theoretical predictions are widely supported by available experiments. They indicate that the proposed rules may have broad appeal. They may have implication on exploring mechanisms most useful for growths of vertically aligned nanotubes of narrow chirality distributions.