Title Information
Title
Theoretical and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Studies on the Mechanics of Carbon Nanomaterials-Based Nano/Bio-Systems
Name: Personal
Name Part
Shi, Xinghua
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2011
Physical Description
Extent
xix, 125 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note
Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2011)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Gao, Huajian
Role
Role Term: Text
Director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Kim, Kyung-Suk
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Hurt, Robert
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. ENGINEERING: Solid Mechanics
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Through coarse grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) simulations and theoretical models, we show that, depending on the radius, a carbon nanotube can enter a cell either by wrapping into the cell membrane or by directly piercing through the membrane. We find that MWCNTs tend to enter the cell via a tip entry mechanism with the final entry angle determined by the curved membrane induced torque that tends to rotate the nanotube to a large entry angle, which may lead to frustrated endocytosis and even cell death. We also conduct MD simulations to understand the stiffness effect in adhesive wrapping of an elastic vesicle by a membrane. Generally, stiffer particles require lower adhesion strength to achieve full wrapping and it is more difficult for a cell to engulf softer vesicles. Through theoretical model and MD simulations, we investigate the basic structure of a carbon nanoscroll and derived an analytical relation between the surface energy, the bending stiffness, the interlayer spacing, the length of the basal graphene sheet, the pressure difference between the inner and outer core of CNS and the core radius of the resulting CNS. We develop a theoretical model to describe the "breathing" oscillatory motion of a CNS, and have validated the theory with MD simulations. It is found that the gigahertz oscillation of CNS can be controlled by tuning the effective surface energy of the system via an applied DC/AC electric field. A controllable translational nanoactuator based on the rolling and unrolling motion of CNS on a substrate is proposed and investigated by both theoretical modeling and MD simulations. It is suggested that CNS based linear nanoactuator can be controlled by tuning the effective surface energy of the system via an applied DC/AC electric field. We conduct MD simulations of a novel class of tunable water channels based on CNSs and show that it is possible to use dipole-dipole interaction induced by an externally applied electric field to reduce the effective surface energy of a CNS, so as to controllably increase its core size and the associated water flow rate.
Subject
Topic
carbon nanoscrolls
Subject
Topic
nanotoxicity
Subject
Topic
theoretical modeling
Subject
Topic
molecular dynamics,
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1896549")
Topic
Carbon nanotubes
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1024778")
Topic
Molecular dynamics
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20111003
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Language Term: Text
English
Identifier: DOI
10.7301/Z0NG4NWT
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations