Coarse-grained molecular simulation of self-assembly nanostructures of CTAB on nanoscale graphene. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Shuyan; Wu, Dan; Yang, Xiaoning
• Is Part Of: Molecular simulation. Volume 42:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 31
• Page End: 38
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: molecular simulation -- coarse-grained -- graphene -- cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) -- self-assembly; Molecular dynamics -- Computer simulation -- Periodicals; Statistical mechanics -- Computer simulation -- Periodicals; 539.6
• DOI: 10.1080/08927022.2015.1007053
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-7022

Abstract

Abstract : Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation has been performed to study the aggregated morphology of the cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), adsorbed on nanoscale graphene surfaces. The CTAB surfactants can self-assemble on graphene to form various supramolecular morphologies and structures. The effect of packing density, thickness of graphene sheet and width of graphene nanoribbon on the CTAB–graphene self-assembly has been investigated. The buoyant densities of various graphene–CTAB assemblies were calculated, which increase with surfactant coverage and number of graphene layers. This result demonstrates that density gradient can be used to isolate graphenes with various layers. This simulation provides larger-scale microscopic insight into the supramolecular self-assembly nanostructures for the CTAB surfactants aggregated on graphene, which could be valuable to guide fabrication of graphene-based hybrid nanocomposites.