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Mishra S, Liu F, Shakthivel D, Rai B, Georgiev V. Molecular dynamics simulation-based study to analyse the properties of entrapped water between gold and graphene 2D interfaces. NANOSCALE ADVANCES 2024; 6:2371-2379. [PMID: 38694470 PMCID: PMC11059550 DOI: 10.1039/d3na00878a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 03/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/04/2024]
Abstract
Heterostructures based on graphene and other 2D materials have received significant attention in recent years. However, it is challenging to fabricate them with an ultra-clean interface due to unwanted foreign molecules, which usually get introduced during their transfer to a desired substrate. Clean nanofabrication is critical for the utilization of these materials in 2D nanoelectronics devices and circuits, and therefore, it is important to understand the influence of the "non-ideal" interface. Inspired by the wet-transfer process of the CVD-grown graphene, herein, we present an atomistic simulation of the graphene-Au interface, where water molecules often get trapped during the transfer process. By using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigated the structural variations of the trapped water and the traction-separation curve derived from the graphene-Au interface at 300 K. We observed the formation of an ice-like structure with square-ice patterns when the thickness of the water film was <5 Å. This could cause undesirable strain in the graphene layer and hence affect the performance of devices developed from it. We also observed that at higher thicknesses the water film is predominantly present in the liquid state. The traction separation curve showed that the adhesion of graphene is better in the presence of an ice-like structure. This study explains the behaviour of water confined at the nanoscale region and advances our understanding of the graphene-Au interface in 2D nanoelectronics devices and circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shashank Mishra
- James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ Glasgow UK
| | - Fengyuan Liu
- James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ Glasgow UK
| | | | - Beena Rai
- TCS Research, Tata Consultancy Services Limited Pune 411013 India
| | - Vihar Georgiev
- James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ Glasgow UK
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Twisted bilayer zigzag-graphene nanoribbon junctions with tunable edge states. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1018. [PMID: 36823140 PMCID: PMC9950076 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36613-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Stacking two-dimensional layered materials such as graphene and transitional metal dichalcogenides with nonzero interlayer twist angles has recently become attractive because of the emergence of novel physical properties. Stacking of one-dimensional nanomaterials offers the lateral stacking offset as an additional parameter for modulating the resulting material properties. Here, we report that the edge states of twisted bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons (TBZGNRs) can be tuned with both the twist angle and the stacking offset. Strong edge state variations in the stacking region are first revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We construct and characterize twisted bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbon (TBZGNR) systems on a Au(111) surface using scanning tunneling microscopy. A detailed analysis of three prototypical orthogonal TBZGNR junctions exhibiting different stacking offsets by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals emergent near-zero-energy states. From a comparison with DFT calculations, we conclude that the emergent edge states originate from the formation of flat bands whose energy and spin degeneracy are highly tunable with the stacking offset. Our work highlights fundamental differences between 2D and 1D twistronics and spurs further investigation of twisted one-dimensional systems.
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Silva A, Tosatti E, Vanossi A. Critical peeling of tethered nanoribbons. NANOSCALE 2022; 14:6384-6391. [PMID: 35412551 DOI: 10.1039/d2nr00214k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The peeling of an immobile adsorbed membrane is a well-known problem in engineering and macroscopic tribology. In the classic setup, picking up at one extreme and pulling off result in a peeling force that is a decreasing function of the pickup angle. As one end is lifted, the detachment front retracts to meet the immobile tail. At the nanoscale, interesting situations arise with the peeling of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) on gold, as realized, e.g., by atomic force microscopy. The nanosized system shows a constant-force steady peeling regime, where the tip lifting h produces no retraction of the ribbon detachment point, and just an advancement h of the free tail end. This is opposite to the classic case, where the detachment point retracts and the tail end stands still. Here we characterise, by analytical modeling and numerical simulations, a third, experimentally relevant setup where the nanoribbon, albeit structurally lubric, does not have a freely moving tail end, which is instead elastically tethered. Surprisingly, novel nontrivial scaling exponents appear that regulate the peeling evolution. As the detachment front retracts and the tethered tail is stretched, power laws of h characterize the shrinking of the adhered length, the growth of peeling force and the peeling angle. These exponents precede the final total detachment as a critical point, where the entire ribbon eventually hangs suspended between the tip and the tethering spring. These analytical predictions are confirmed by realistic MD simulations, retaining the full atomistic description, also confirming their survival at finite experimental temperatures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Silva
- CNR-IOM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto Officina dei Materiali, c/o SISSA Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
| | - Erio Tosatti
- CNR-IOM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto Officina dei Materiali, c/o SISSA Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
- The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy
| | - Andrea Vanossi
- CNR-IOM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto Officina dei Materiali, c/o SISSA Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
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Competition between Sliding and Peeling of Graphene Nanoribbons under Horizontal Drag. MATERIALS 2022; 15:ma15093284. [PMID: 35591618 PMCID: PMC9105344 DOI: 10.3390/ma15093284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 05/01/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
In the process of graphene nanoribbons’ (GNRs) preparation and measurement, mechanical methods such as lifting and dragging are inevitably used to move GNRs, and manipulation of GNRs using these approaches results in intriguing responses such as peeling and sliding. Understanding the mechanical behaviors of GNRs is crucial for the effective use of mechanical deformation as a tool for the measurement and characteristics of low-dimensional material properties. Here, we explore intricate coupling behaviors of peeling and sliding of GNRs under horizontal drag. Using molecular dynamics simulation, we explore effects of lifting height, dragging velocity, length, and orientation of GNRs on mechanical behaviors. We reveal a competition between sliding and peeling of GNRs under horizontal drag and provide a phase diagram. The peeling behavior is found to be originated from the decrease of sliding velocity caused by the sinking of tail atoms. The results not only advance our insightful understanding of the underlying mechanism of different mechanical responses of GNRs but may also guide the precise manipulations of nano surfaces and interfaces.
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Ouyang W, Hod O, Guerra R. Registry-Dependent Potential for Interfaces of Gold with Graphitic Systems. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:7215-7223. [PMID: 34711058 PMCID: PMC8582252 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
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We
present a semi-anisotropic
interfacial potential (SAIP) designed
to classically describe the interaction between gold and two-dimensional
(2D) carbon allotropes such as graphene, fullerenes, or hydrocarbon
molecules. The potential is able to accurately reproduce dispersion-corrected
density functional theory (DFT+D3) calculations performed over selected
configurations: a flat graphene sheet, a benzene molecule, and a C60 fullerene, physisorbed on the Au(111) surface. The effects
of bending and hydrogen passivation on the potential terms are discussed.
The presented SAIP provides a noticeable improvement in the state-of-the-art
description of Au–C interfaces. Furthermore, its functional
form is suitable to describe the interfacial interaction between other
2D and bulk materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wengen Ouyang
- Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China
| | - Oded Hod
- Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and The Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Roberto Guerra
- Center for Complexity and Biosystems, Department of Physics, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
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Ouyang W, Hod O, Urbakh M. Registry-Dependent Peeling of Layered Material Interfaces: The Case of Graphene Nanoribbons on Hexagonal Boron Nitride. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2021; 13:43533-43539. [PMID: 34486375 PMCID: PMC8488940 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c09529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Peeling of layered materials from supporting substrates, which is central for exfoliation and transfer processes, is found to be dominated by lattice commensurability effects in both low and high velocity limits. For a graphene nanoribbon atop a hexagonal boron nitride surface, the microscopic peeling behavior ranges from stick-slip, through smooth-sliding, to pure peeling regimes, depending on the relative orientation of the contacting surfaces and the peeling angle. The underlying mechanisms stem from the intimate relation between interfacial registry, interlayer interactions, and friction. This, in turn, allows for devising simple models for extracting the interfacial adhesion energy from the peeling force traces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wengen Ouyang
- Department
of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China
| | - Oded Hod
- Department
of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, The Raymond and Beverly
Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and The Sackler Center for Computational
Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
| | - Michael Urbakh
- Department
of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, The Raymond and Beverly
Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and The Sackler Center for Computational
Molecular and Materials Science, Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
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Effect of the External Velocity on the Exfoliation Properties of Graphene from Amorphous SiO2 Surface. CRYSTALS 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/cryst11040454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
External action has a significant influence on the formation of high-quality graphene and the adhesion of graphene on the surface of the MEMS/NEMS device. The atomic-scale simulation and calculation can further study the exfoliation process of graphene by external actions. In multilayer graphene systems where graphene layers were simulated weakly contacted with SiO2 substrate, a constant vertical upward velocity (Vup) was applied to the topmost layer. Then two critical velocities were found, and three kinds of distinct exfoliation processes determined by critical upward velocities were observed in multilayer graphene systems. The first critical velocities are in the range of 0.5 Å/ps–3.18 Å/ps, and the second critical velocities are in the range of 9.5 Å/ps–12.1 Å/ps. When the Vup is less than the first critical velocity, all graphene layers will not be exfoliated. When Vup is between the first and second critical Vup, all layers can be exfoliated almost synchronously at last. When Vup is larger than the second critical Vup, the topmost layer can be exfoliated alone, transferring energy to the underlying layers, and the underlying layers are slowly exfoliated. The maximum exfoliation force to exfoliate the topmost layer of graphene is 3200 times larger than that of all graphene layers. Moreover, it is required 149.26 mJ/m2 to get monolayer graphene from multilayers, while peeling off all layers without effort. This study explains the difficulty to get monolayer graphene and why graphene falls off easily during the transfer process.
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Pawlak R, Vilhena JG, D'Astolfo P, Liu X, Prampolini G, Meier T, Glatzel T, Lemkul JA, Häner R, Decurtins S, Baratoff A, Pérez R, Liu SX, Meyer E. Sequential Bending and Twisting around C-C Single Bonds by Mechanical Lifting of a Pre-Adsorbed Polymer. NANO LETTERS 2020; 20:652-657. [PMID: 31797665 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b04418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Bending and twisting around carbon-carbon single bonds are ubiquitous in natural and synthetic polymers. Force-induced changes were so far not measured at the single-monomer level, owing to limited ways to apply local forces. We quantified down to the submolecular level the mechanical response within individual poly-pyrenylene chains upon their detachment from a gold surface with an atomic force microscope at 5 K. Computer simulations based on a dedicated force field reproduce the experimental traces and reveal symmetry-broken bent and rotated conformations of the sliding physisorbed segment besides steric hindrance of the just lifted monomer. Our study also shows that the tip-molecule bond remains intact but remarkably soft and links force variations to complex but well-defined conformational changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémy Pawlak
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - J G Vilhena
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - Philipp D'Astolfo
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - Xunshan Liu
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Bern , Freiestrasse 3 , Bern , CH 3012 , Switzerland
| | - Giacomo Prampolini
- CNR-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche , Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici (ICCOM-CNR) , Pisa , Italy
| | - Tobias Meier
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - Thilo Glatzel
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - Justin A Lemkul
- Department of Biochemistry , Virginia Tech , 303 Engel Hall, 340 West Campus Drive , Blacksburg , Virginia 24061 , United States
| | - Robert Häner
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Bern , Freiestrasse 3 , Bern , CH 3012 , Switzerland
| | - Silvio Decurtins
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Bern , Freiestrasse 3 , Bern , CH 3012 , Switzerland
| | - Alexis Baratoff
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
| | - Rubén Pérez
- Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada , Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , E-28049 Madrid , Spain
- Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) , Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , E-28049 Madrid , Spain
| | - Shi-Xia Liu
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Bern , Freiestrasse 3 , Bern , CH 3012 , Switzerland
| | - Ernst Meyer
- Department of Physics , University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 82 , 4056 Basel , Switzerland
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Gigli L, Vanossi A, Tosatti E. Modeling nanoribbon peeling. NANOSCALE 2019; 11:17396-17400. [PMID: 31528907 DOI: 10.1039/c9nr04821a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The lifting, peeling and exfoliation of physisorbed ribbons (or flakes) of 2D material such as graphene off a solid surface are common and important manoeuvres in nanoscience. The feature that makes this case peculiar is the structural lubricity generally realized by stiff 2D material contacts. We model theoretically the mechanical peeling of a nanoribbon of graphene as realized by the tip-forced lifting of one of its extremes off a flat crystal surface. The evolution of shape, energy, local curvature and body advancement are ideally expected to follow a succession of regimes: (A) initial prying, (B) peeling with stretching but without sliding (stripping), (C) peeling with sliding, (D) liftoff. In the case where in addition the substrate surface corrugation is small or negligible, then (B) disappears, and we find that the (A)-(C) transition becomes universal, analytical and sharp, determined by the interplay between bending rigidity and adsorption energy. This general two-stage peeling transition is identified as a sharp crossover in published data of graphene nanoribbons pulled off an atomic-scale Au(111) substrate.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Gigli
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
| | - A Vanossi
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy. and CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
| | - E Tosatti
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy. and CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy and The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy
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