| Description |
The focus of this dissertation is the Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation study of two different systems. In the first system, we study the dynamic process of graphene exfoliation, particularly graphene dispersion using ionic surfactants (Chapter 2). In the second system, we investigate the mesoscopic structure of binary solute/ionic liquid (IL) mixtures through the comparison between simulations and corresponding experiments (Chapter 3 and 4). In the graphene exfoliation study, we consider two separation mechanisms: changing the interlayer distance and sliding away the relative distance of two single-layer graphene sheets. By calculating the energy barrier as a function of separation (interlayer or sliding-away) distance and performing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) structure analysis around graphene surface in SDS surfactant/water + bilayer graphene mixture systems, we find that the sliding-away mechanism is the dominant, feasible separation process. In this process, the SDS-graphene interaction gradually replaces the graphene-graphene Van der Waals (VdW) interaction, and decreases the energy barrier until almost zero at critical SDS concentration. In solute/IL study, we investigate nonpolar (CS2) and dipolar (CH3CN) solute/IL mixture systems. MD simulation shows that at low concentrations, IL is nanosegregated into an ionic network and nonpolar domain. It is also found that CS2 molecules tend to be localized into the nonpolar domain, while CH3CN interacts with nonpolar domain as well as with the charged head groups in the ionic network because of its amphiphilicity. At high concentrations, CH3CN molecules eventually disrupt the nanostructural organization. This dissertation is organized in four chapters: (1) introduction to graphene, ionic liquids and the methodology of MD; (2) MD simulation of graphene exfoliation; (3) Nanostructural organization in acetonitrile/IL mixtures; (4) Nanostructural organization in carbon disul-fide/IL mixtures; (5) Conclusions. Results of MD simulations of liquid mixture systems car-ried out in this research explain observed experiments and show the details of nanostructural organizations in small solute molecules/IL mixture. Additionally, the research successfully reveals the correct mechanism of graphene exfoliation process in liquid solution. (This will be summarized in Chapter 5.) The research presented in this dissertation enhances our understanding of the microscopic behaviors in complex liquid systems as well as the theoretical method to explore them. |
