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Updated: May 4, 2026

DNA Nanotubes as a Versatile Tool to Study Semiflexible Polymers
Published on: October 25, 2017
New insights into the properties and interactions of carbon chains as revealed by HRTEM and DFT analysis
Gilberto Casillas1, Alvaro Mayoral2, Mingjie Liu3
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA.
Abstract:
Atomic carbon chains have raised interest for their possible applications as graphene interconnectors as the thinnest nanowires; however, they are hard to synthesize and subsequently to study. We present here a reproducible method to synthesize carbon chains in situ TEM. Moreover, we present a direct observation of the bond length alternation in a pure carbon chain by aberration corrected TEM. Also, cross bonding between two carbon chains, 5 nm long, is observed experimentally and confirmed by DFT calculations. Finally, while free standing carbon chains were observed to be straight due to tensile loading, a carbon chain inside the walls of a carbon nanotube showed high flexibility.
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