Collision Dynamics of a Carbon Ion Impinging a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube

The collision dynamics of a carbon ion impinging a carbon atomic site, the center of a C-C bond and the hollow site at the center of a hexagonal ring of a single-walled carbon nanotube has been studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The microscopic evolution processes of the defect formation are explored by analyzing the collisions initiated with low, medium and high incident energy, respectively. Considerable difference is observed among the collisions at different impact sites in view of the incident threshold energy and the defect formation. For the collision at the carbon atomic site, the incident threshold energy is 20 eV, which is the lowest energy of defect formation. For the hollow site, the carbon nanotube is seriously deformed after collision. An energy conversion mechanism is proposed, based on the analysis of the time evolutions of energies. The kinetic energy of the incident ion is consumed in the form of the thermal kinetic energy, center-of-mass kinetic energy and potential energy of the carbon nanotube, which explains the energy transfer between the incident carbon ion and the nanotube.