Energetics and structures of carbon nanorings

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is adopted to study the stability of carbon nanorings, where the force-field function describes the interactions of the carbon atoms. A nanoring is formed by bending a straight nanotube (n, m) and connecting its two ends together. Both armchair and zigzag nanorings are investigated, and the critical diameters for stable nanorings are obtained. It is found that zigzag nanorings have a larger critical diameter than armchair nanorings.