Roberto Guerra,1,2 Itai Leven,3 Andrea Vanossi,4,1 Oded Hod,3 and Erio Tosatti1,4,5
1) International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
2) Dipartimento di Fisicà, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
3) Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and The Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
4) CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
5) The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy
We identify a new material phenomenon, where minute mechanical
manipulations induce pronounced global structural recongurations in
faceted multi-walled nanotubes. This behavior has strong implications
on the tribological properties of these systems and may be the key to
understand the enhanced inter-wall friction recently measured for
boron-nitride nanotubes with respect to their carbon
counterparts. Notably, the fast rotation of helical facets in these
systems upon coaxial sliding may serve as a nanoscale Archimedean
screw for directional transport of physisorbed molecules.
