Analytical van der Waals interaction potential for faceted nanoparticles.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Our ability to synthesize faceted nanoparticles of tunable shapes and sizes has opened up many intriguing applications of such particles. However, our progress in understanding, modeling, and simulating their collective rheology, phase behavior, and self-assembly has been hindered by the lack of analytical interparticle interaction potentials. Here, we present one of the first analytical models for the van der Waals interaction energy between faceted nanoparticles. The model was derived through various approximations that reduce the usual six-dimensional integral over particle volumes to a series of two-dimensional integrals over particle interaction areas with closed-form solutions. Comparison and analyses of energies obtained from the analytical model with those computed from exact atomistic calculations show that the model approximations lead to insignificant errors in predicted energies across all relevant particle configurations. We demonstrate that the model yields accurate energies for diverse particle shapes including nanocubes, triangular prisms, faceted rods, and square pyramids, while yielding many orders of magnitude improvement in computational efficiency compared to atomistic calculations. To make the model more accessible and to demonstrate its applicability, an open-source graphical user interface application implementing the model for nanocubes in arbitrary configurations has been developed. We expect that the analytical model will accelerate future investigations of faceted nanoparticles that require accurate calculation of interparticle interactions.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Lee, BH-J; Arya, G

Published Date

  • December 2020

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 5 / 12

Start / End Page

  • 1628 - 1642

PubMed ID

  • 33185642

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 2055-6764

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 2055-6756

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1039/d0nh00526f

Language

  • eng