Sharif Digital Repository

We analyze the process of electrowetting-induced jumping of droplets away from a substrate with a geometric heterogeneity in the form of a cone and compare the results with those of a flat substrate in different wettabilities and hydrophobicities. Our results reveal that the droplet dynamics can be enhanced through applying a topographic heterogeneity. However, increasing the height of the cones does not always provide a better condition for the jumping and there is an optimum value for the height of the cones. The enhancement is due to the fact that more liquid flowing affects the pressure gradient within the droplet leading to a higher jumping velocity. It is shown that for the flat... 

Nanocars are artificial molecular machines with chassis, axles, and wheels designed for nanoscale transport at materials' surfaces. Understanding the dependence of surface dynamics of nanocars on the substrate's physicochemical properties is critical to the design of the transport properties of such man-made nanoscale devices. Among the multitude of potential substrates for the nanotransporters, graphene exhibits intrinsic ripples on its surface, which may affect the surface dynamics of nanocars. In this work, we report our molecular dynamics study of motion of C60, a popular nanocar wheel, on the graphitic substrates with systematically controllable surface ripples. We find that surface... 

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate the manipulation of metallic clusters on double-layer surfaces. The system parts are made of transition metals. The conditions which are subjected to change in the tests are material combinations for cluster, main substrate and lubricant layer (adlayer). In addition to qualitative observations, two criteria which represent the particle deformation and substrate abrasion are utilized as evaluation tools and are computed for each case. Obtaining this sort of knowledge is highly beneficial for further experiments in order to be able to plan the conditions and routines, which guarantee better success in the manipulation process  

In the previous years, a few types of nanocars have been built with the promising potential to transport other molecules, to provide bottom-up assembly, or to perform other mechanical tasks. In this study, we propose a method to convert the diffusive displacement of nanocars to a guided motion in a desired path by adding some impurity atoms in the substrate. We investigated the motion of C60 as well as the nanotruck and the nanocar on a flat gold substrate containing silver contamination and conversely a silver substrate containing gold contamination at the different temperatures. The results showed that silver impurity on the gold substrate act as a repellent obstacle in the path of C60... 

This paper investigates the subsurface stress field induced by a rigid cylinder rolling over a functionally graded coating-substrate system. The Fourier transform is employed to extract the stress components within the graded coating and the homogeneous substrate. The distributions of the stresses are given through the depth and along the coating-substrate interface. The contour plots of normalized Von Mises stresses are provided as well. The results indicate that continuous variation of the shear modulus substantially reduces the difference between the in-plane stresses along the interface. Also, the softening coating leads to the minimum value of the stress concentration near the contact... 

Unidirectional current flow is at the heart of modern electronics, which has been conceived by making p–n junctions or Schottky barriers between different kinds of materials. Within such elements, however, synthesis of thin film lateral heterostructures has so far remained challenging. Here, a one-step simple synthesis of p-type, n-type, and metallic lateral heterostructures using bipolar electrodeposition (BPE) technique is reported. Molybdenum oxides and sulfides with gradient of oxygen and sulfur are deposited at a metallic substrate. A lateral heterostructure is achieved with electrical properties that change from p- to n-type semiconductor and then to metal by moving in the plane of the... 

We show that a plasmonic semiconductor substrate can support highly confined surface plasmons when it is covered by a graphene layer. This occurs when the imaginary part of graphene conductivity and real part of the effective permittivity of the surrounding medium become simultaneously negative. Full-wave electromagnetic simulations demonstrate the occurrence of negative refraction and two-dimensional lensing at the interface separating regions supporting conventional right-handed graphene plasmons and left-handed surface plasmon polaritons. © 2018 Optical Society of America  

A novel nebulizing spray hydrolysis approach was used for preparation of semi-transparent superhydrophobic coatings. Methyltrimethoxysilane was dissolved in water:ethanol mixture and ultrasonically sprayed on different substrates. Superhydrophobic coatings with a contact angle (CA) as high as 164° and a sliding angle below 5° were obtained. FESEM and AFM revealed a hierarchical micro-nano binary structure with nanometric roughness of the coatings. The coated glass substrate exhibited transmittance close to 80%. The prepared coating showed great self-cleaning and water jet repellency behaviors. The superhydrophobicity of the samples was remained after subjecting to ambient conditions for 50... 

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a sensitive vibration spectroscopy method applied to analyze a variety of analytes, including toxins and pesticides. The SERS method is an accurate method for detecting significantly low concentrations of biomaterials and chemicals. In the present study, in order to detect atrazine pesticide, the glass fiber substrates coated with silver nanoparticles have been used as SERS plasmonic nanosensors. First, silver nanoparticles were prepared by applying a chemical approach named the Tollens' method, and the SERS plasmonic substrates (SPS) were fabricated by depositing the colloidal silver solution on a glass fiber substrate. The SERS plasmonic... 

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate the manipulation of metallic clusters on double-layer surfaces. The system parts are made of transition metals. The conditions which are subjected to change in the tests are material combinations for cluster, main substrate and lubricant layer (adlayer). In addition to qualitative observations, two criteria which represent the particle deformation and substrate abrasion are utilized as evaluation tools and are computed for each case. Obtaining this sort of knowledge is highly beneficial for further experiments in order to be able to plan the conditions and routines, which guarantee better success in the manipulation process  

We studied the mobility of p-carborane on a gold surface by analyzing the potential energy surfaces (PES) and simulating the motion of p-carborane using the classical molecular dynamics (MD) method. In the first section, we calculated the PES of p-carborane molecules on a gold surface during pure translation (sliding) and pure rotation independently and then employed this PES to predict the probable motion of p-carborane. These calculations were performed in several major orientations during sliding as well as different fixed positions during rotational movements to enable us to find the p-carborane motion threshold on a gold surface. In the second section, we use classical MD in isothermal... 

Mesoscopic hydrodynamic equations are solved to investigate the dynamics of nanodroplets positioned near a topographic step of the supporting substrate. Our results show that the dynamics depends on the characteristic length scales of the system given by the height of the step and the size of the nanodroplets as well as on the constituting substances of both the nanodroplets and the substrate. The lateral motion of nanodroplets far from the step can be described well in terms of a power law of the distance from the step. In general the direction of motion depends on the details of the effective laterally varying intermolecular forces. But for nanodroplets positioned far from the step it is... 

This paper discusses the effects of substrate motions on the performance of microgyroscopes modeled as ring structures. Using the Extended Hamiltonian Principle, the equations of motion of a ring micro-gyroscope are derived, and the natural frequency equation and response characteristics are extracted in closed form for the case where the substrate undergoes normal rotation. The Galerkin approximation is then used to arrive at the ordinary differential equations of motion for the ring. In these equations, the effects of angular, centripetal and Coriolis accelerations are all apparent. The response of the system to different inputs is studied and the system sensitivity to variation in input... 

An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a capable tool to manipulate nanoparticles by exerting pushing force on the nanoparticles located on the substrate. In reality, the substrate cannot be considered as a smooth surface particularly at the nanoscale. Hence, the particle may encounter a step on the substrate during a manipulation. In this study, dynamics of the nanoparticle on a stepped substrate and critical pushing force in the manipulation are investigated. There are two possible dynamic modes that may happen in the manipulation on the stepped substrate. In one mode, the nanoparticle may slide on the step edge and then climb up to the step which is a desired mode. Another possible mode is... 

Based on the fact that the manipulation of fine nanoclusters calls for more precise modelling, the aim of this paper is to conduct an atomistic investigation for interaction analysis of particle-substrate system for pushing and positioning purposes. In the present research, 2D molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate such behaviours. Performing the planar simulations can provide a fairly acceptable qualitative tool for our purpose while the computation time is reduced extremely in comparison to 3D simulations. To perform this study, Nose-Hoover dynamics and Sutton-Chen interatomic potential will be used to investigate the behaviour of the aforementioned system. Pushing of... 

We report different morphologies of nanodroplets over various topographical features of the supporting substrates. The effects of different parameters such as the profile of the disjoining pressure, droplet size and the geometrical parameters are studied and discussed. Also, the effects of a coating layer on the surface of the substrate are determined. It is demonstrated that the nanodroplets at some positions are not stable and gradually move to more stable positions so that the system has less energy. For grooves this results in a series of morphology diagrams of the nanodroplets over the grooves as a function of the grooves' width and the liquid volume