Restricted three body problems at the nanoscale

In this paper, we investigate some of the classical restricted three body problems at the nanoscale, such as the circular planar restricted problem for three C60 fullerenes, and a carbon atom and two C60 fullerenes. We model the van der Waals forces between the fullerenes by the Lennard-Jones potential. In particular, the pairwise potential energies between the carbon atoms on the fullerenes are approximated by the continuous approach, so that the total molecular energy between two fullerenes can be determined analytically. Since we assume that such interactions between the molecules occur at sufficiently large distance, the classical three body problems analysis is legitimate to determine the collective angular velocity of the two and three C60 fullerenes at the nanoscale. We find that the maximum angular frequency of the two and three fullerenes systems reach the terahertz range and we determine the stationary points and the points which have maximum velocity for the carbon atom for the carbon atom and the two fullerenes system

From chemical gardens to chemobrionics

Chemical gardens in laboratory chemistries ranging from silicates to polyoxometalates, in applications ranging from corrosion products to the hydration of Portland cement, and in natural settings ranging from hydrothermal vents in the ocean depths to brinicles beneath sea ice. In many chemical-garden experiments, the structure forms as a solid seed of a soluble ionic compound dissolves in a solution containing another reactive ion. In general any alkali silicate solution can be used due to their high solubility at high pH. The cation should not precipitate with the counterion of the metal salt used as seed. A main property of seed chemical-garden experiments is that initially, when the fluid is not moving under buoyancy or osmosis, the delivery of the inner reactant is diffusion controlled. Another experimental technique that isolates one aspect of chemical-garden formation is to produce precipitation membranes between different aqueous solutions by introducing the two solutions on either side of an inert carrier matrix. Chemical gardens may be grown upon injection of solutions into a so-called Hele-Shaw cell, a quasi-two-dimensional reactor consisting in two parallel plates separated by a small gap

Some novel plane trajectories for carbon atoms and fullerenes captured by two fixed parallel carbon nanotubes

The movement of atoms and molecules at the nanoscale constitutes a fundamental problem in physics, especially following the motion of atoms in many-body systems condensing together to form molecular structures. A number of simplified nanoscale dynamical problems have been analyzed and here we investigate the classical orbiting problem around two centers of attraction at the nanoscale. An example of such a system would be a carbon atom or a fullerene orbiting in a plane which is perpendicular to two fixed parallel carbon nanotubes. We model the van der Waals forces between the molecules by the Lennard-Jones potential. In particular, the total pairwise potential energies between carbon atoms on the fullerene and the carbon nanotubes are approximated by the continuous approach, so that the total molecular energy can be determined analytically. Since we assume that such interactions occur at a sufficiently large distance, the classical two center problem analysis is legitimate to determine various novel trajectories of the atom and fullerene numerically. It is clear that the oscillatory period of the atom for some bounded trajectories reaches terahertz frequencies. We comment that the continuous approach adopted here has the merit of a very fast computational time and can be extended to more complicated structures, in contrast to quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations.Y. Chan and J.M. Hil