Scaling laws for van der Waals interactions in nanostructured materials

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2013 papers

Abstract

Van der Waals interactions have a fundamental role in biology, physics and chemistry, in particular in the self-assembly and the ensuing function of nanostructured materials. Here we utilize an efficient microscopic method to demonstrate that van der Waals interactions in nanomaterials act at distances greater than typically assumed, and can be characterized by different scaling laws depending on the dimensionality and size of the system. Specifically, we study the behaviour of van der Waals interactions in single-layer and multilayer graphene, fullerenes of varying size, single-wall carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoribbons. As a function of nanostructure size, the van der Waals coefficients follow unusual trends for all of the considered systems, and deviate significantly from the conventionally employed pairwise-additive picture. We propose that the peculiar van der Waals interactions in nanostructured materials could be exploited to control their self-assembly.

Related Papers

• → Nonadditivity in van der Waals interactions within multilayers(2006)55 cited
• → Quadrupolar contributions to the atom-surface Van der Waals interaction(1986)5 cited
• → Van der Waals interactions between graphitic nanowiggles(2013)4 cited
• → Theoretical study of some Van der Waals molecules(1980)34 cited
• → Van der Waals Forces(2010)1 cited