Kinks, rings, and rackets in filamentous structures.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 14530401.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 218726.
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Abstract
Carbon nanotubes and biological filaments each spontaneously assemble into kinked helices, rings, and "tennis racket" shapes due to competition between elastic and interfacial effects. We show that the slender geometry is a more important determinant of the morphology than any molecular details. Our mesoscopic continuum theory is capable of quantifying observations of these structures and is suggestive of their occurrence in other filamentous assemblies as well.
Medical subject headings
- Biopolymers
- Nanotubes, Carbon