Twisting or untwisting graphene twisted nanoribbons without rotation

Abstract

The common sense regarding twisting or untwisting a ribbon is that it requires the application of an external rotation to happen. However, at nanoscale, the application of precise amounts of rotation on a nanoribbon is not a trivial task. Here, the concept of an alternative method to add twist to or remove twist from a twisted graphene nanoribbon (TGNR) without rotation is presented. The method consists of suspending a TGNR on two separate substrates and by changing only their distance, the total amount of twist of the TGNR is shown to change. The possibility to fine-tuning the amount of twist of a TGNR is also shown. The concept is demonstrated through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and numerical calculations of the topological parameters twist and writhe of a TGNR. It is shown that the above process satisfies the so-called linking number theorem of space curves. Besides being experimentally feasible, this concept reveals a new kind of twist to writhe transition phenomenon that is tension-free and does not require controlling neither the nanoribbon end-to-end distance nor its critical twist density.

arXiv commentThis is the submitted version of the paper, that was published in PRB

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• First-Principles and Reactive Molecular Dynamics Study of the Elastic Properties of Pentahexoctite-based Nanotubes
• High performance of carbon nanotube refrigerators over a large temperature span
• Length and torsion dependence of thermal conductivity in twisted graphene nanoribbons