Structural and electronic properties of single-wall BN nanotubes

Abstract

The structural and electronic properties of armchair and zigzag models of single-wall BN nanotubes have been investigated by performing semi-empirical molecular orbital self-consistent field calculations at the level of the Austin Model 1 (AM1) method within the RHF formulation. It has been found that these structures are stable and exothermic. The armchair model has a zero net dipole moment, whereas the zigzag model has a nonzero net dipole moment. The interfrontier molecular energy gap of these systems are close to each other, thus the gap is independent of the chirality of the tube.