One-dimensional silicon and germanium nanostructures with no carbon analogues.

In this work we report new silicon and germanium tubular nanostructures with no corresponding stable carbon analogues. The electronic and mechanical properties of these new tubes were investigated through ab initio methods. Our results show that these structures have lower energy than their corresponding nanoribbon structures and are stable up to high temperatures (500 and 1000 K, for silicon and germanium tubes, respectively). Both tubes are semiconducting with small indirect band gaps, which can be significantly altered by both compressive and tensile strains. Large bandgap variations of almost 50% were observed for strain rates as small as 3%, suggesting their possible applications in sensor devices. They also present high Young's modulus values (0.25 and 0.15 TPa, respectively). TEM images were simulated to help in the identification of these new structures.

Mechanical properties and fracture dynamics of silicene membranes.

As graphene has become one of the most important materials, there is renewed interest in other similar structures. One example is silicene, the silicon analogue of graphene. It shares some of the remarkable graphene properties, such as the Dirac cone, but presents some distinct ones, such as a pronounced structural buckling. We have investigated, through density functional based tight-binding (DFTB), as well as reactive molecular dynamics (using ReaxFF), the mechanical properties of suspended single-layer silicene. We calculated the elastic constants, analyzed the fracture patterns and edge reconstructions. We also addressed the stress distributions, unbuckling mechanisms and the fracture dependence on the temperature. We analysed the differences due to distinct edge morphologies, namely zigzag and armchair.

Dynamical aspects of the unzipping of multiwalled boron nitride nanotubes.

Boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) exhibit very interesting magnetic properties, which could be very useful in the development of spintronic based devices. One possible route to obtain BNNRs is through the unzipping of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), which have been already experimentally realized. In this work, different aspects of the unzipping process of BNNTs were investigated through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations using a classical reactive force field (ReaxFF). We investigated multiwalled BNNTs of different diameters and chiralities. Our results show that chirality plays a very important role in the unzipping process, as well as the interlayer coupling. These combined aspects significantly change the fracturing patterns and several other features of the unzipping processes in comparison to the ones observed for carbon nanotubes. Also, similar to carbon nanotubes, defective BNNTs can create regions of very high curvature which can act as a path to the unzipping process.

On the unzipping of multiwalled carbon nanotubes.

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are very interesting structures which can retain graphene's high carrier mobility while presenting a finite bandgap. These properties make GNRs very valuable materials for the building of nanodevices. Unzipping carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is considered one of the most promising approaches for GNR controlled and large-scale production, although some of the details of the CNT unzipping processes are not completely known. In this work we have investigated CNT unzipping processes through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations using reactive force fields (ReaxFF). Multiwalled CNTs of different dimensions and chiralities under induced mechanical stretching were considered. Our results show that fracture patterns and stress profiles are highly CNT chirality dependent. Our results also show that the 'crests' (partially unzipped CNT regions presenting high curvature), originating from defective CNT areas, can act as a guide for the unzipping processes, which can explain the almost perfectly linear cuts frequently observed in unzipped CNTs.