arXiv subjects

D. S. Galvão

Publications and source records attributed to D. S. Galvão.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

A Nonzero Gap Two-Dimensional Carbon Allotrope from Porous Graphene

Graphene is considered one of the most promising materials for future electronic. However, in its pristine form graphene is a gapless material, which imposes limitations to its use in some electronic applications. In order to solve this problem many approaches have been tried, such as, physical and chemical functionalizations. These processes compromise some of the desirable graphene properties. In this work, based on ab initio quantum molecular dynamics, we showed that a two-dimensional carbon allotrope, named biphenylene carbon (BPC) can be obtained from selective dehydrogenation of porous graphene. BPC presents a nonzero bandgap and well-delocalized frontier orbitals. Synthetic routes to BPC are also addressed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Curved Graphene Nanoribbons: Structure and Dynamics of Carbon Nanobelts

Carbon nanoribbons (CNRs) are graphene (planar) structures with large aspect ratio. Carbon nanobelts (CNBs) are small graphene nanoribbons rolled up into spiral-like structures, i. e., carbon nanoscrolls (CNSs) with large aspect ratio. In this work we investigated the energetics and dynamical aspects of CNBs formed from rolling up CNRs. We have carried out molecular dynamics simulations using reactive empirical bond-order potentials. Our results show that similarly to CNSs, CNBs formation is dominated by two major energy contribution, the increase in the elastic energy due to the bending of the initial planar configuration (decreasing structural stability) and the energetic gain due to van der Waals interactions of the overlapping surface of the rolled layers (increasing structural stability). Beyond a critical diameter value these scrolled structures can be even more stable (in terms of energy) than their equivalent planar configurations. In contrast to CNSs that require energy assisted processes (sonication, chemical reactions, etc.) to be formed, CNBs can be spontaneously formed from low temperature driven processes. Long CNBs (length of $\sim$ 30.0 nm) tend to exhibit self-folded racket-like conformations with formation dynamics very similar to the one observed for long carbon nanotubes. Shorter CNBs will be more likely to form perfect scrolled structures. Possible synthetic routes to fabricate CNBs from graphene membranes are also addressed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Thermophoretically Driven Carbon Nanotube Oscillators

The behavior of a nanodevice based upon double-walled carbon nanotube oscillators driven by periodically applied thermal gradients (7 and 17 K/nm) is investigated by numerical calculations and classical molecular dynamics simulations. Our results indicate that thermophoresis can be effective to initiate the oscillator and that suitable heat pulses may provide an appropriate way to tune its behavior. Sustained regular oscillatory as well as chaotic motions were observed for the systems investigated in this work.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Doping of zigzag carbon nanotubes through the encapsulation of small fullerenes

In this work we investigated the encapsulation of C$_20$ and C$_30$ fullerenes into semiconducting carbon nanotubes to study the possibility of bandgap engineering in such systems. Classical molecular dynamics simulations coupled to tight-binding calculations were used to determine the conformational and electronic properties of carbon nanotube supercells containing up to 12 fullerenes. We have observed that C$_20$ fullerenes behave similarly to a p-type dopant while C$_30$ ones work as n-type ones. For larger diameter nanotubes, where fullerene patterns start to differ from the linear arrangements (peapods), the doping features are preserved for both fullerenes, but local disorder plays an important role and significantly alters the electronic structure. The combined incorporation of both fullerene types (hybrid encapsulation) into the same nanotube leads to a behavior similar to that found in electronic junctions in Silicon-based electronic devices. These aspects can be exploited in the design of nanoelectronic devices using semiconducting carbon nanotubes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Elastic Properties of Nanowires

We present a model to study Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of the composite material of amorphous nanowires. It is an extension of the model derived by two of us [Da Fonseca and Galvao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 175502 (2004)] to study the elastic properties of amorphous nanosprings. The model is based on twisting and tensioning a straight nanowire and we propose an experimental setup to obtain the elastic parameters of the nanowire. We used the Kirchhoff rod model to obtain the expressions for the elastic constants of the nanowire.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2006

Prediction of Giant Electro-actuation for Carbon Nanoscrolls

We study by first-principles calculations the electro-mechanical response of carbon nanoscrolls. We show that although they present a very similar behavior to carbon nanotubes for what concerns the axial deformation sensitivity, they exhibit a radial response upon charge injection which is up to one order of magnitude larger. In association with their high stability, this behavior make them a natural choice for a new class of very efficient nano-actuators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗