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Natural rotational motors from double-walled carbon nanotubes

Come: Chinese Academy of Sciences    Date: 2014-12-16 13:51:33


Double-walled carbon nanotube (DWNT)-based devices like bearings, motors and oscillators have potential application in the design of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). In previous studies on nanorotational systems, e.g. the bearing and motor, there is a hypothesis of an existence of initial rotational speed. This is used to discuss the high speed of rotation of the inner tube in an outer tube. In contrast, and reporting in Nanotechnology, researchers find that the inner tube in a fixed outer tube can be driven to rotate stably in a high speed (up to ~170 GHz) by uniform temperature.

A computational mechanics team, including researchers from the Northwest A&F University in China and the Australian National University, investigate the temperature-driven rotational behavior of a DWNT with fixed outer tube.
Uniform temperature
The researchers find that the inner tube in the bitube system can be driven to rotate by uniform temperature. The peak value of rotational speed is sensitive to three factors: environmental temperature, number of fixed atoms on the outer tube, and the radii difference between inner and outer tubes. They reveal that the geometric asymmetric of the fixed outer tube leads to the transmission of thermal vibration into rotational kinetic energy of the inner tube. This discovery gives a theoretical support for related research and the design of devices.
Next steps
According to this phenomenon, the researchers may carry out a further study on the design of a rotational motor from a DWNT. At the same time, the way to detect the rotational speed of a real DWNT could be considered.

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