Nanoserpents: Graphene Nanoribbon Motion on Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Materials

We demonstrate snake-like motion
of graphene nanoribbons atop graphene
and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrates using
fully atomistic nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The
sliding dynamics of the edge-pulled nanoribbons is found to be determined
by the interplay between in-plane ribbon elasticity and interfacial
lattice mismatch. This results in an unusual dependence of the friction-force
on the ribbon’s length, exhibiting an initial linear rise that
levels-off above a junction-dependent threshold value dictated by
the pre-slip stress distribution within the slider. As part of this
letter, we present the LAMMPS implementation of the registry-dependent
interlayer potentials for graphene, h-BN, and their
heterojunctions that were used herein, which provides enhanced performance
and accuracy.