Bucky-corn: Van der Waals composite of carbon nanotube coated by fullerenes

Can a C₆₀ layer cover a surface of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) forming an exohedral pure-carbon hybrid with only van der Waals interactions? The aim of the present paper is to address this question and to demonstrate that the fullerene shell layer in such a bucky-corn structure can be stable. Theoretical study of the structure, stability and electronic properties of bucky-corn hybrids is reported for the shell of C₆₀ and C₇₀ molecules on an individual SWCNT, C₆₀ dimers on an individual SWCNT as well as C₆₀ molecules on SWNT bundles. The geometry and total energies of the bucky-corn hybrids were calculated by the molecular dynamics method, while the density functional theory method was used to simulate the electronic band structures.