Diamond Needles Actuating Triple-Walled Carbon Nanotube to Rotate via Thermal Vibration-Induced Collision

A rotary nanomotor is an essential component of a nanomachine. In the present study, a rotary nanomotor from wedged diamonds and triple-walled nanotubes was proposed with the consideration of boundary effect. The outer tubes and mid-tubes were used as nanobearing to constrain the inner tube. Several...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hui Li, Aiqin Wang, Jiao Shi, Yongjian Liu, Gao Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/5/1140
Description
Summary:A rotary nanomotor is an essential component of a nanomachine. In the present study, a rotary nanomotor from wedged diamonds and triple-walled nanotubes was proposed with the consideration of boundary effect. The outer tubes and mid-tubes were used as nanobearing to constrain the inner tube. Several wedges of the diamond were placed near the inner tube for driving the inner tube to rotate. At a temperature lower than 300 K, the inner tube as the rotor had a stable rotational frequency (SRF). It is shown that both the rotational direction and the value of SRF of the rotor depended on the temperature and thickness of the diamond wedges. The dependence was investigated via theoretical analysis of the molecular dynamics simulation results. For example, when each diamond wedge had one pair of tip atoms (unsaturated), the rotational direction of the rotor at 100 K was opposite to that at 300 K. At 500 K, the rotating rotor may stop suddenly due to breakage of the diamond needles. Some conclusions are drawn for potential application of such a nanomotor in a nanomachine.
ISSN:1422-0067