A semi-analytical approach for the interaction of carbon nanotori

• A novel semi-analytical method is developed to study the van der Waals interaction between two parallel concentric nanotori.
• The effects of geometrical parameters on potential energy and interaction force distributions are investigated.
• The oscillatory behavior of two parallel carbon nanotori is studied.
• Results obtained from this study revealed the plausibility of using nanotori as the ideal traps for atoms and particles.

Based on the continuum approximation together with Lennard-Jones potential, a new semi-analytical method is developed to investigate the van der Waals interaction between two parallel carbon nanotori. Considering that atomistic approaches, such as classical molecular dynamics and density functional theory, are often computationally expensive, the present continuum method can be alternatively used for theoretical modeling of interaction force and energy between nanostructures. Following the present method, a semi-analytical expression is given in terms of double integrals which can be used to obtain the potential energy and interaction force. Investigating the effects of geometrical parameters on the potential energy and interaction force distributions reveals the oscillatory behavior of two parallel carbon nanotori and the plausibility of using them as the ideal traps for atoms and particles.