We have shown that using high pressure we can create a new type of 1-dimensional system. This new carbon polymorphe is obtained from a linear chain of carbon atoms (in red in the top figure) encapsulated inside a double-wall carbon nanotube. At high pressures the nanotube deforms allowing the formation of new bonds between the chain (in blue in the bottom figure) and the nanotube wall (in black)...
We have shown that the mechanics of single-wall carbon nanotubes cannot be assimilated to the one of macroscopic tubes. At the meso-nanoscale, the continnuum mechanics approach breaks and needs to be replaced by an atomistic view. Our combined experimental and theoretical study, has allowed us to determine a correction to the Lévy-Carrier law (continuum mechanics) to describe the radial collapse of tubes under pressure....
We propose a model for the pressure induced radial collapse of nanotubes with a few number of walls. The proposed model deviates from continous mechanics predictions. This deviations are due to atomic discretization of the compliances for diameters smaller than about 1nm and due to tube-tube interactions for larger tubes...
We have shown that an atomic-layer of MoS2 deposited on a glass surface is made of a composition of zones in adhesion with the surface and other zones which remain unbounded. MoS2 being a semiconductor it is proposed as an alternative to graphene. We have shown that MoS2 sticks to surfaces in a very different way than graphene, which on its side tends to do it homogeniously...