Coefficient of restitution of sub-10 nm silver nanoparticles on an adhesive surface under repulsive and sticky conditions

M Khodabakhshi and JZ Wen and ZC Tan, EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL D, 76, 156 (2022).

DOI: 10.1140/epjd/s10053-022-00483-7

Filtration and separation of airborne nanoparticles remains a challenge due to their unique properties. This paper reports a molecular dynamics study on the size-dependent coefficient of restitution (CoR) of sub-10 nm nanoparticles on a surface with varying stickiness. The results show the collision regime changes from quasi-elastic or viscoelastic to plastic deformation, with increasing the particle impact velocity. For purely repulsive collisions, CoR of these nanoparticles generally exhibits a similar trend, but they become fluctuating for smaller nanoparticles. When the impact velocity reaches the respective yield velocity, plastic deformation takes place and CoR starts to decrease. During the sticky collisions, the nanoparticles around 2 nm acquire an increased impact velocity higher than their yield velocities, resulting in plastic deformation and reduced CoR for all initial velocities. Larger nanoparticles follow the same trend of the CoR curve for purely repulsive collisions, although their CoR values become smaller than the repulsive collision.

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