Energy Optimum Chiralities of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes.

The article presents a study of the energetically favored chiral configurations of two neighboring tubes in a multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) by extensive calculations for the energy differences in different MWNT models. The lowest energy for MWNTs with a large inner diameter are given by nearly identical chiralities. The layer by layer growth process of a MWNT is influenced by the energy difference.