Insight into the stacking and the species-ordering dependences of interlayer bonding in SiC/GeC polar heterostructures

Two-dimensional (2D) polar materials experience an in-plane charge transfer between different elements due to their electron negativities. When they form vertical heterostructures, the electrostatic force triggered by such charge transfer plays an important role in the interlayer bonding beyond van der Waals (vdW) interaction. Our comprehensive first principle study on the structural stability of the 2D SiC/GeC hybrid bilayer heterostructure has found that the electrostatic interlayer interaction can induce the π-π orbital hybridization between adjacent layers under different stacking and out-of-plane species ordering, with strong hybridization in the cases of Si-C and C-Ge species orderings but weak hybridization in the case of the C-C ordering. In particular, the attractive electrostatic interlayer interaction in the cases of Si-C and C-Ge species orderings mainly controls the equilibrium interlayer distance and the vdW interaction makes the system attain a lower binding energy. On the contrary, the vdW interaction mostly controls the equilibrium interlayer distance in the case of the C-C species ordering and the repulsive electrostatic interlayer force has less effect. Interesting finding is that the band structure of the SiC/GeC hybrid bilayer is sensitive to the layer-layer stacking and the out-of-plane species ordering. An indirect band gap of 2.76 eV (or 2.48 eV) was found under the AA stacking with Si-C ordering (or under the AB stacking with C-C ordering). While a direct band gap of 2.00 eV – 2.88 eV was found under other stacking and species orderings, demonstrating its band gap tunable feature. Furthermore, there is a charge redistribution in the interfacial region leading to a built-in electric field. Such field will separate the photo-generated charge carriers in different layers and is expected to reduce the probability of carrier recombination, and eventually give rise to the electron tunneling between layers.

The Cohesive Energy and Vibration Characteristics of Parallel Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Based on the van der Waals (vdW) interaction between carbon atoms, the interface cohesive energy between parallel single-walled carbon nanotubes was studied using continuous mechanics theory, and the influence of the diameter of carbon nanotubes and the distance between them on the cohesive energy was analyzed. The results show that the size has little effect on the cohesive energy between carbon nanotubes when the length of carbon nanotubes is over 10 nm. At the same time, we analyzed the cohesive energy between parallel carbon nanotubes with the molecular dynamics simulation method. The results of the two methods were compared and found to be very consistent. Based on the vdW interaction between parallel carbon nanotubes, the vibration characteristics of the two parallel carbon nanotube system were analyzed based on the continuous mechanical Euler-beam model. The effects of the vdW force between carbon nanotubes, the diameter and length of carbon nanotubes on the vibration frequency of carbon nanotubes was studied. The obtained results are helpful in improving the understanding of the vibration characteristics of carbon nanotubes and provide an important theoretical basis for their application.

Band Bending Mechanism in CdO/Arsenene Heterostructure: A Potential Direct Z-scheme Photocatalyst

For the few years, two-dimensional (2D) materials have aroused general focus. In order to expand the properties and application range of 2D materials, two different layered materials are usually combined into heterostructure through van der Waals (vdW) interaction. In this research, based on first-principles simulation, we propose CdO/Arsenene (CdO/As) vdW heterostructure as a semiconductor possessing a direct bandgap by 2.179 eV. Besides, the CdO/As vdW heterostructure presents type-II band alignment, which can be used as a remarkable photocatalyst. Importantly, the CdO/As heterostructure demonstrates a direct Z-type principle photocatalyst by exploring the band bending mechanism in the heterostructure. Furthermore, we calculated the light absorption characteristics of CdO/As vdW heterostructure by optical absorption spectrum and conversion efficiency of a novel solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (ηSTH) about 11.67%, which is much higher than that of other 2D photocatalysts. Our work can provide a theoretical guidance for the designing of Z-scheme photocatalyst.

Effects of Van Der Waals Forces on the Vibration of Stacked Multilayered Graphene/Black Phosphorus Heterostructures

In this paper, the vibration of a stacked multilayered graphene/black phosphorus (G/BP) heterostructure is investigated via the mesh-free method. The shape function and its derivatives are addressed by the moving least squares (MLS) approach. Optimization of the sequential quadratic programming method is adopted to calculate the distance between the arbitrary layers. Therefore, coefficients of the van der Waals (vdW) interaction between arbitrary layers of heterostructures are obtained. Then the frequencies and mode shapes of the multilayered G/BP heterostructure, considering the vdW interaction between arbitrary layers, are compared with considering only the vdW interaction among adjacent layers. The effects of the number of layers and aspect ratio of the G/BP heterostructure on the frequencies are investigated. The results demonstrate that coefficients of the vdW interaction, considering the arbitrary layers, are larger than those considering only adjacent layers. The difference between natural frequencies considering arbitrary layers and those considering adjacent layers is not clear for the low-order cases. Alternatively, the difference between natural frequencies obtained considering arbitrary layers and those considering adjacent layers are obvious for high-order cases. This paper provides a useful method to optimize the vdW interaction between multilayered G/BP heterostructures and can adequately simulate their vibration behaviors.

Modeling of the Van Der Waals Forces during the Adhesion of Capsule-Shaped Bacteria to Flat Surfaces

A novel model is developed to evaluate the van der Waals (vdW) interactions between a capsule shaped bacterium (P. putida) and flat minerals plates in different approach profiles: Vertically and horizontally. A comparison of the approaches to the well-developed spherical particle to mineral surface (semi-infinite wall and spherical) approach has been made in this investigation. The van der Waals (vdW) interaction potentials for a capsule-shaped bacterium are found using Hamaker’s microscopic approach of sphere to plate and cylinder to plate either vertically or horizontally to the flat surface. The numerical results show that a horizontal orientated capsule shaped bacterium to mineral surface interaction was more attractive compared to a capsule shaped bacterium approaching vertically. The orientation of the bacterial approaching a surface as well as the type and topology of the mineral influence the adhesion of a bacteria to that surface. Furthermore, the density difference among each type of bacteria shape (capsule, cylinder, and sphere) require different amounts of energy to adhere to hematite and quartz surfaces.

Coarse-grained Simulation of Anionic Surfactant Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate

Through analyzing the deficiency of the current coarse-grained (CG) model, a new CG model for the ionic surfactant was proposed based on the Martini force field and iterative Boltzmann inversion method. In this model, the electrostatic interaction can be tackled by using a self-defined piecewise function to avoid the disadvantage of using coarse-grained solvents, and the VDW interaction parameters were derived by iterative methods. Using the improved model, the radial distribution function of NaCl and SDS solution in all-atom OPLS can be completely reproduced. The successful setup of the new coarse-grained model provides a good example of the construction of a high-precision coarse-grained force field.

First-Principles Study of Epoxy Resin Adhesion to Tin Oxide Surface

A density functional theory (DFT) is used to investigate the energetics of an epoxy resin adhere on a tin oxide and a hydroxylated-alumina surface within a supercell approach. Self—consistent geometry optimization is performed for models of adhesion interface, which is comprised of a fragment of epoxy resin and hydroxylated-Al2O3 (001), and SnO2(001) and (110) surface. The epoxy resin studied was simplified fragment based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA). It is found that the distance between the resin and the surface where the adhesion force is maximized is substantially the same for all models. Analysis of the energy-distance plot reveals that the fragment of DGEBA molecule adhere most strongly to the SnO2(001) surface, suggesting that the adhesion force is induced by van der Waals (vdW) interaction.

Investigation of the Selectivity of L-Type Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels 1.3 for Pyrimidine-2,4,6-Triones Derivatives Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Human Cav1.3 (hCav1.3) is of great interest as a potential target for Parkinson’s disease. However, common medications like dihydropyridines (DHPs), a kind of classic calcium channel blocker, have poor selectivity to hCav1.3 in clinical treatment, mainly due to being implicated in cardiovascular side-effects mediated by human Cav1.2 (hCav1.2). Recently, pyrimidine-2,4,6-triones (PYTs) have received extensive attention as prominent selective inhibitors to hCav1.3. In this study, we describe the selectivity mechanism of PYTs for hCav1.2 and hCav1.3 based on molecular dynamic simulation methods. Our results reveal that the van der Waals (vdW) interaction was the most important force affecting selectivity. Moreover, the hydrophobic interaction was more conducive to the combination. The highly hydrophobic amino acid residues on hCav1.3, such as V162 (IR1), L303 (IR2), M481 (IR3), and F484 (IR3), provided the greatest contributions in the binding free energy. On the other hand, the substituents of a halogen-substituted aromatic ring, cycloalkyl and norbornyl on PYTs, which are pertinent to the steric hindrance of the compounds, played core roles in the selectivity and affinity for hCav1.3, whereas strong polar substituents needed to be avoided. The findings could provide valuable information for designing more effective and safe medicines for Parkinson’s disease.

First-Principles Study of the Adsorption of Carboxylic Acid on Cu(111)

The geometric structure and electronic properties of the adsorption of organic carboxylic acids on the closed-packed Cu(111) surface have been addressed by periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We also have taken into account van der Waals (vdW) interaction by the VdW-DF method. The optimized structures show that formic and acetic acids have stable structures of molecular adsorption in clean copper surfaces. We find that the adsorption energies at 1/16 ML coverage are -0.27, -0.30 and -0.10 eV for formic, acetic, and propionic acid, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of vdW-DF, their adsorption energies increased to -0.63, -0.70 and -0.73 eV.

Interfacial Contact Behavior between CNTs and AgNW with Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The behavior at an interface between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silver nanowire (AgNW) could hardly be observed experimentally on an atomic scale, and the interaction is difficult to accurately calculate due to nanometer size effects. In this work, the contact behavior is studied with the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, which indicates that the CNTs and AgNW can move towards each other to form aligned structures with their interfaces in full contact. In these different composite systems, nanotubes may either keep their form of an inherent cylindrical structure or completely collapse into the nanoribbons that can tightly scroll on the AgNW periphery while wrapping it in a core-shell structure. Thus, the atomic configuration evolution that is affected by the van der Waals (vdW) interaction is closely analyzed to assist the understanding of interfacial contact behavior.