Energy dependence of C60–graphite surface collisions

Abstract

The resilience of C60 fullerene with graphite (0001) surfaces has been investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations with empirical model potentials. The initial energy of C60 ranges from 30 to 300 eV. It is shown that when the impact energy is above 60 eV, the rebounding energy of C60 is nearly independent of the impact energy. The scattering is highly inelastic and the internal excitation energy of the scattered molecule increases with the incident energy. These results are consistent with experiment. Furthermore, the simulations provide insight into the microscopic aspects of the scattering. The rebounding processes at different energies are found to exhibit similar dynamic behavior and the molecular center-of-mass motion can be regarded as moving in a quadratic harmonic potential. All of these results support a schematic picture to describe nonreactive C60-surface collisions.