Rice University theorists determine factors that give tubes their chiral angles
Many a great idea springs from talks over a cup of coffee. But it’s rare and wonderful when a revelation comes from the cup itself.
Rice University theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson, acting upon sudden inspiration at a meeting last year in Arlington, Va., obtained a couple of spare coffee cups from a server and a pair of scissors and proceeded to lay out – science fair-style – an idea that could have far-reaching implications for the nanotechnology industry.
As reflected in a new paper in Nature Communications, Yakobson and his Rice colleagues, postdoctoral researcher Vasilii Artyukhov and research scientist Evgeni Penev, had come up with the seed (or perhaps, bean) of a simple formula that describes why nanotubes have chirality. Chirality is the property that describes the angle of the carbon atom hexagons that make up a nanotube’s walls.
– See more at: Rice News