Abstract
In this article, we report the self-assembly process, structural features, thermal and hydration properties of the gold fullerene nanocomposite at room temperature by applying molecular dynamics simulation technique. The gold-fullerene systems constituting alkanethiol capped gold nanoparticle and pristine fullerene in explicit water have been simulated to gain insights on the influence of the terminal methyl (hydrophobic) and hydroxy (hydrophilic) groups on their structure and properties. The physisorption of the fullerene molecule into the thiol layer of the gold nanoparticle has been demonstrated and elucidated. The chemical functionality of the terminal groups was found to affect the structure, specific heat capacity and the wetting behavior of the gold-fullerene nanocomposite. The findings from this computational study may aid the understanding and development of novel gold-fullerene nanostructures for modulating their structural, thermal and hydration properties through the modification of their surface functional groups.
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Acknowledgements
J. Meena Devi and G. Jayabalaji express their sincere thanks to SERB Fast Track Project [SR/FTP/PS-214/2012], New Delhi, India for the financial support. All the simulations were carried out in High-Performance Computing Cluster at SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India. J. Meena Devi acknowledges the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy for providing her Regular Associate award for the period of 01 Jan 2019 to 31 Dec 2024.
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Jayabalaji, G., Ramya, L. & Meena Devi, J. Investigation on the structural, thermal and hydration properties of gold-fullerene nanocomposite. J Chem Sci 132, 71 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-020-01773-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-020-01773-6