From Rings to Tubes: Building Carbon Nanotubes in SAMSON

Designing nanoscale architectures like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is often a tedious challenge in molecular modeling. Aligning atoms, replicating units, and preserving bonding integrity can take hours of meticulous work, even for small structures. If you’ve ever tried to build a carbon nanotube manually, you know how unforgiving the smallest misalignment can be.

But SAMSON’s Pattern Editors let you approach this process differently. Using the Circular and Linear Pattern Editors together, you can construct custom CNTs in minutes—by assembling rings into precisely stacked cylinders. This combination enables hands-on control of geometry without needing pre-made assets or code.

Here’s a walkthrough of how to design a carbon nanotube step by step, using SAMSON’s pattern tools alone:

1. Start Simple: Create the Base Ring

  • Open the Build tool and draw a carbon ring (e.g., hexagonal)
  • Remove hydrogen atoms to prepare for bonding
  • Use the Move tool to rotate and align the ring edges properly

2. Replicate the Ring with the Circular Pattern Editor

  • Activate the Circular Pattern Editor (press W)
  • Set the number of instances (e.g., 12) to form a closed circle
  • Adjust the radius to make the edges of the units overlap
  • Click Accept to fuse overlapping atoms into a single seamless ring

3. Align to the Plane

  • Use Edit > Align to snap the new ring to the desired orientation (typically the XY plane)

4. Build Up into a Tube with the Linear Pattern Editor

  • Select the full ring you just created
  • Activate the Linear Pattern Editor (press L)
  • Adjust the spacing (e.g., 2 Å) between the rings along the Z-axis
  • Optionally set a small rotation to mimic CNT helicity
  • Click Accept to generate the nanotube

5. Optional: Minimize and Hydrogenate

  • Use the built-in Minimize function to relax the structure and optimize bond lengths
  • Add terminal hydrogens if needed

This approach gives you complete control of the nanotube’s geometry: ring size, wall curvature, length, and chirality. It’s especially useful when modeling custom or functionalized CNTs where pre-built templates fall short.

Here’s what the main Pattern Editor looks like in action:

Interactive tutorial in SAMSON

To summarize, this method lets you:

  • Interactively design CNTs without scripts or templates
  • Create clean geometries ready for further modeling
  • Replicate units precisely using visual snapping and numerical input

Want to explore more advanced patterning options, like curved patterns or nanostructure replication? Visit the full documentation page at https://documentation.samson-connect.net/users/latest/creating-patterns/.

SAMSON and all SAMSON Extensions are free for non-commercial use. You can download SAMSON at https://www.samson-connect.net.

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