Carbon nanotuballs: Can they drive the future of nanofibers?

Abstract

Nanofibers are extremely thin fibers produced from materials such as carbon, polymers, ceramics, and metals with diameters in the nanometer range that gained significant interest due to their unique properties. Carbon nanotubes, which could be considered the most popular fibers in the nanoscale, have gained widespread recognition primarily due to their remarkable strength derived from their cylindrical hexagonal lattice formed by carbon covalent bonds. Here, a new family of carbon nanofibers is proposed, arising from the combination of the tubular hexagonal configuration of carbon nanotubes and the spherical nanostructure of carbon fullerenes. These novel nanofibers, hereafter named carbon nanotuballs, are expected to demonstrate new advantaged characteristics such as better cross-section properties, enhanced interfacial interactions, and other unique physical attributes when used as fillers within other phases. Some preliminary theoretical investigations based on molecular dynamics are provided here to test the structural stability and mechanical behaviour of some single-walled carbon nanotuballs.