Pressure-induced interlinking of carbon nanotubes

We predict new forms of carbon consisting of one- and two-dimensional netwo rks of interlinked single-wall carbon nanotubes, some of which are energeti cally more stable than van del Waals packing of the nanotubes on a hexagona l lattice. These interlinked nanotubes are further transformed with higher applied external pressures to more dense and complicated stable structures, in which curvature-induced carbon sp(3) rehybridizations are formed. We al so discuss the energetics of the bond formation between nanotubes and the e lectronic properties of these predicted novel structures.