Electronic and magnetic properties of small fullerene carbon nanobuds: A DFT study

The electronic and magnetic properties of carbon nanobuds have been investigated using density functional theory. The carbon nanobuds are formed by attaching smaller fullerenes (C20, C28, C36 and C40) of variable size with (5, 5) ACNT and (5, 0) ZCNT. Fullerenes interact strongly with CNT surface having binding energies within the range −0.93 eV to −4.06 eV. The C–C bond lengths near the attachment region increase from the original C–C bond lengths. The relative stabilities of the nanobuds are closely related to C–C bond lengths and bond angles in cycloaddition reaction. Nanobuds formed by bond cycloaddition are energetically most favorable amongst all cycloadditions. The electronic and magnetic properties of nanobuds depend strongly on electronic properties of its building blocks. The attachment of C20 and C40 on CNTs open up the HOMO-LUMO gaps of nanobuds whereas C28 and C36 results in addition of impurity states near the Fermi level. The total magnetic moment of nanobuds vary from 0.28μB to 4.00μB which depend on the nature of bonding between fullerene and CNTs. The results outline the potential of nanobuds as hybrid carbon nanostructures and how their properties can be tuned with the size and type of fullerene attached.