Thermomechanical Stresses in Fullerenes at Nanotube

Nicola M Pugno

doi:10.1155/2008/156724

Abstract

The thermomechanical stresses acting between a nanotube and fullerenes encapsulated on it are computed. After a general formulation, based on elasticity, we have applied the analysis to C82(10,10) or C60(10,10) peapods finding stresses in the gigapascal range or vanishing, respectively. The analysis suggests that a thermal control could be used to produce smart fullerenes at nanotube systems, for example, as two-stage nanovectors for drug delivery.

Highlights

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to Curl, Kroto, and Smalley for their discovery in 1985, together with Heath and O’Brien [1], of fullerenes
The thermomechanical stresses of a fullerenes at nanotube peapod can be tuned by varying the temperature in a controllable way
The analysis suggests that smart fullerenes at nanotube peapods, such as two-stage nanovectors for drug delivery, could in principle be realized by remote thermal activation

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to Curl, Kroto, and Smalley for their discovery in 1985, together with Heath and O’Brien [1], of fullerenes. It is common belief that the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) took place in 1991 thanks to Iijima [2], who reported in Nature the observation of multiwalled CNTs. In 1993, in the same issue of Nature, two independent groups, again Iijima with Ichihashi [3] and Bethune et al [4], reported the observation of singlewalled CNTs. In 1993, in the same issue of Nature, two independent groups, again Iijima with Ichihashi [3] and Bethune et al [4], reported the observation of singlewalled CNTs The impact of these papers on the scientific community has been unquestionably tremendous. We analyze the thermomechanical stresses acting between a nanotube and encapsulated fullerenes (e.g., see [11, 12]). The analysis suggests that a thermal control could be used to produce smart fullerenes at nanotube systems, for example, as two-stage nanovectors for drug delivery

THE THERMOMECHANICAL ELASTIC MODEL

CONCLUSIONS