Propriedades estruturais, mecânicas e eletrônicas de nanotubos de carbono

Abstract

Carbon Nanotubes have been intensively studied due to their unique properties. Among these properties we can cite its high elastic modulus and the fact that carbon nanotubes can be either metallic or semiconducting depending on their structures. The literature provides a wide variety of works on which these properties are discussed, with some high discrepancies (for example in the case of the Young’s modulus). In this work we propose to revise the literarture in order to better understand these properties based of different references, both of theoretical and experimental nature. Firstly, we show discuss the structural properties of carbon nanotubes, showing the composition and shape of the unit cell and of the first Brillouin zone as a function of the nanotube diameter and chirality. We also show how a nanotube can be classified in terms of the pair of integers (n,m) which define its structure. Furthermore, we discuss some works in the literature which study the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes, such as its axial and radial Young modulus, its shear modulus, among other properties. We conclude with a description of the electronic properties, where we show the metallic and semiconducting nature of the nanotubes and how it affects the density of states.