Comparison of Diffusive Motion of C60 on Graphene and Boron Nitride Surfaces

TL;DR

This study compares the diffusive motion of C60 molecules on graphene and boron nitride surfaces at 300 K using molecular dynamics, revealing greater displacement on graphene and similar super-diffusion behavior on both substrates.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of C60 diffusion on two different 2D materials, highlighting differences in displacement and confirming super-diffusive regimes.

Findings

C60 exhibits greater displacement on graphene than boron nitride.

Both substrates show super-diffusive motion at 300 K.

Diffusion coefficients differ between the two surfaces.

Abstract

Inspired by macroscale vehicles, many molecular machines have been synthesized yet. Due to the importance of atomic manipulation at the surface, nanocars are of particular interest. Nanocar wheels play a crucial role in their motion. One of the popular candidate for using as a nanocar wheel is C60 molecule. In addition, the investigation of nanocar motion on two dimensional substrates is important due to formation of ripples on surface. Therefore, in this work we study the motion of C60 on graphene and boron nitride monolayer substrates at 300 K. The simulations are conducted by the means of molecular dynamics method. The trajectory of motion shows more displacement range when fullerene is moving on the graphene surface and as a result, it has a greater diffusion coefficient in this case. It has been showed that C60 motion on graphene and boron nitride obey a same super-diffusion regime at 300 K with different anomaly parameters.