A possible formation mechanism of double-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotube: a molecular dynamics study

Molecular dynamics simulations based on an empirical potential were performed to study the interaction of graphene nanoribbons and the single-walled carbon nanotubes. The results indicated that a piece of graphene nanoribbon can form a tube structure inside or outside single-walled carbon nanotubes spontaneously under certain condition. Based on this kind of spontaneous phenomenon, we proposed a new possible formation mechanism of double walled carbon nanotube and multi-walled carbon nanotube, and suggested the possibility of controlling the structure of double-walled carbon nanotube and/or multi-walled carbon nanotube.