Chirality in carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes conduct electricity somewhat like a metal, and somewhat like a semiconductor, depending on the precise arrangements of atoms in their walls. The spontaneous symmetry breaking occurring when the available energy drops below about the equilibrium thermal energy may have been giving way in the graphene to the gap (a crack) formation in a certain privileged (weak) direction. The parallelism of the rolling up direction of the nanotube to the band gap may confer on it the semiconducting property. It seems that it is possible through the chemistry to build a complete integrated circuit out of a single graphene sheet. By regulating the digital switching problem a keen competition with silicon is set about creating new opportunities in the domain of computer manufacturing technology.