Self-assembly of two-dimensional, amorphous materials on a liquid substrate

TL;DR

This study uses a 2D coarse-grained model to show that liquid substrates with optimal liquidity enhance the self-assembly of amorphous materials like graphene, highlighting the benefits of substrate motion.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating how substrate atom mobility improves amorphous material self-assembly, revealing optimal liquidity conditions.

Findings

Optimal substrate liquidity enhances self-assembly.

Substrate atom motion improves assembly efficiency.

Specific liquidity levels are necessary for best results.

Abstract

Recent experimental utilization of liquid substrate in the production of two-dimensional crystals, such as graphene, together with a general interest in amorphous materials, raises the following question: is it beneficial to use a liquid substrate to optimize amorphous material production? Inspired by epitaxial growth, we use a two-dimensional coarse-grained model of interacting particles to show that introducing a motion for the substrate atoms improves the self-assembly process of particles that move on top of the substrate. We find that a specific amount of substrate liquidity (for a given sample temperature) is needed to achieve optimal self-assembly. Our results illustrate the opportunities that the combination of different degrees of freedom provides to the self-assembly processes.