Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/section-b/20/ii/solution

For a graphene honeycomb with C-C bond length , a primitive cell has two atoms and area . Its areal atomic density is
For the nanotube atom-count estimate, treat each shell as a graphene cylinder. The atoms per axial length are
Using the fringe spacing as an internal ruler gives representative estimates , and , consistent with radial spacings of . Then
The meaningful estimate is of order atoms per nm, not an exact count. It assumes nearly complete cylindrical shells, uses projected dimensions in a reasonably straight segment, and neglects defects, corrugation and extra external carbon. Image uncertainty in wall count and diameter changes the estimate by tens of percent; no external scale bar is available in this figure.

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