Interactions between Carbon Nanoparticles in a Droplet of Organic Solvent

We report the first detailed molecular dynamics study of two carbon nanoparticles (nanotubes or fullerenes) embedded in a droplet of chloroform. The carbon nanoparticles are negatively charged and are accompanied by the positive counterions of sodium. On the one hand, this setup is inspired by the carbon nanoparticle salts—“nanotubides” and “fullerides”—proposed recently as a convenient way to address the difficult problem of the dispersion of carbon nanoparticulates in the organic solvents. On the other hand, the electrospray of carbon nanoparticle suspensions has been shown to be a promising technique for the production of thin nanoparticle coatings. We explore the combination of these two approaches by using molecular simulations. We find that depending on the overall electrostatic charge balance the two nanoparticles can exist in the droplet either in the “salted-out” bound state or in a “solvent-separated” state. The latter opens up the possibility for the efficient dispersion of the nanoparticles in...