NATURE OF RADIATION-STIMULATED PHASE-TRANSFORMATIONS OF GRAPHITE NANOTUBULES TO FULLERENES AND ONIONS

The proposed model furnishes an explanation of radiation-stimulated tr ansformation of graphitic nanotubules under electron-beam irradiation at 300 keV energy. During irradiation graphitic nanotubules and graphi tic petals of collapsed and curled into spherical fullerene nanopartic les with multilayer structure (onions). With the carbon nano-formation s having developed surface, the superficial effects have to play a tan gible role in the equilibrium and transition of phases. Estimations of the value of surface and pressure change from superficial stretch is indicative of spherical carbon nanoparticles formation to be preferabl e. The build-up of additional spheres around the initial fullerene (on ion formation) and hence its radius increase gradually lowers the Lapl ace pressure. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.