Investigating the surface gradient effects on the nano-machine’s motion

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to consider the simultaneous effect of the surface gradient and the temperature changes on nano-machine migration on gold substrates. By so doing, we hypothesize that nano-machines will experience minimal deviation, which leads them to have a long-range movement even at low temperatures (75 K and 150 K). To this end, the diffusive motion of C60, nanocar, and nanotruck on the conical and concave gold substrates with different radius gradients has been investigated. In order to better understand the effects of chassis and surface interactions on nano-machine movement, an all-atom model and classic atomistic dynamics have been utilized. According to the results, fewer deviations were observed for all nano-machines due to the similar shape of substrates and nano-machine wheels. The results indicated that surface gradient helps in controlling the nano machines’ motion. Furthermore, the surface gradient provides the nano-machines with long-range movement at low temperatures (75K and 150K). All in all, nano-scale applications such as sensors, nano-robots, actuators, and drug carriers in which controllable movement of nano-machines at low temperatures is needed can be addressed by the current study.