Molecular dynamics prediction of interfacial strength and validation through atomic force microscopy

Abstract

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to calculate the interfacial energy between zinc oxide (ZnO) and graphitic carbon. The MD model consists of a ZnO slab and a single layer of graphitic carbon. The calculation was validated experimentally by atomic force microscopy (AFM) liftoff. A polishing process was applied to create a tip with a flat surface that was subsequently coated with a ZnO film allowing force displacement measurement on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite to validate the simulations. The MD simulation and AFM lift-off show good agreement with adhesive energies of 0.303 J/m2 and 0.261 ± 0.054 J/m2, respectively.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 08, 2012
Source ID
10.1063/1.4758988

Entities

People

  • Henry A Sodano
  • Ulises Galan

Organizations

  • Arizona State University
  • Army Research Office
  • University of Florida

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology