New Families of Carbon Nanotubes

Fundamentally new families of carbon single walled nanotubes are proposed. These nanotubes, called graphynes, result from the elongation of covalent interconnections of graphite-based nanotubes by the introduction of yne groups. Similarly to ordinary nanotubes, arm-chair, zig-zag, and chiral graphyne nanotubes are possible. Electronic properties, predicted using tight-binding and ab initio density functional methods, show a rich variety of metallic and semiconducting behaviors.