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Adatoms and nanoengineering of carbon

C. P. Ewels, M. I. Heggie, P. R. Briddon

cond-mat.mtrl-sciarXiv:cond-mat/0112230

Abstract

We present a new and general mechanism for inter-conversion of carbon structures via a catalytic exchange process, which operates under conditions of Frenkel pair generation. The mechanism typically lowers reaction barriers by a factor of four compared to equivilent uncatalysed reactions. We examine the relevance of this mechanism for fullerene growth, carbon onions and nanotubes, and dislocations in irradiated graphite.

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