Mechanical, Adhesive and Thermodynamic Properties of Hollow Nanoparticles

Abstract

AbstractWhen sheets of layeredmaterial like C., WS2 or BN are restricted to [ ]nite sizes, they generally form single- and multi-walled hollow nanoparticles in order to avoiddangling bonds. Using contin uum approaches to model elastic deformation and van der Waals in teractions of spherical nanoparticles, we predict the variation of mechanical stability, adhesive properties and phase behavior with radius R and thickness h. We find that mechanical stability is limited by forces in the nN range and pressures in the GPa range. Adhesion energies scale linearly with R, but depend only weakly on h. Deformation due to van der Waals adhesion occurs for single-walled particles for radii of few nm, but is quickly suppressed for increasing thickness. As R is increased, the gas-liquid coexistence disappears from the phase diagram for particle radii in the range of 1-3 nm (depending on wall thickness) since the in teraction rangedecreases like 1/R.