Growth of Ni nanoclusters on irradiated graphene: a molecular dynamics study GEMA | Universidad Mayor

03 April 2018

Growth of Ni nanoclusters on irradiated graphene: a molecular dynamics study

Rafael González Valdés

F. J. Valencia, E. E. Hernandez-Vasquez, E. M. Bringa, J. L. Moran-Lopez, J. Rogan, R. I. Gonzalez, F. Munoz, Growth of Ni nanoclusters on irradiated graphene: a molecular dynamics study, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

20 (2018) 16347-16353, WoS, 10.1039/C7CP08642C

Abstract: We studied the soft landing of Ni atoms on a previously damaged graphene sheet by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We found a monotonic decrease of the cluster frequency as a function of its size, but few big clusters comprise an appreciable fraction of the total number of Ni atoms. The aggregation of Ni atoms is also modeled by means of a simple phenomenological model. The results are in clear contrast with the case of hard or energetic landing of metal atoms, where there is a tendency to form mono-disperse metal clusters. This behavior is attributed to the high diffusion of unattached Ni atoms, together with vacancies acting as capture centers. The findings of this work show that a simple study of the energetics of the system is not enough in the soft landing regime, where it is unavoidable to also consider the growth process of metal clusters.

Rafael González

rafael.gonzalez@umayor.cl

800 8064Lab5 Nanotecnología

Contact

Camino la Pirámide 5750, Huechuraba, Santiago, Chile
+56 2 22 518 9214|cnap@umayor.cl