Self-Assembled Hierarchical Structure of Fullerene Building Blocks; Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and C60

We report a self-assembled hierarchical nanostructure produced by mixing two carbon nanobuilding blocks -fullerene nanospheres (C-60) and (10,10) armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes- at ambient temperature and pressure. It was found that upon mixing the fullerene building blocks, they self-assemble into films with smectic liquid crystal-like periodicity. The films wrap around to form nanospheres (50 to 150 nm in diameter) with central cavities resembling pitted nanofruits that are connected by a network of stems. Raman spectroscopy showed 10 cm(-1) softening in the frequency of the G(+) mode of the assembled nanotubes indicating significant alteration in the assembly's electronic structure. The current findings point out a new rich subject to explore which could promote engineered nanostructured assemblies leading to many advances in materials science and biological and environmental fields.