Interfacial contact behavior between CNTs and AgNW with molecular dynamics simulation

The behavior at an interface between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silver nanowire (AgNW) could hardly be observed experimentally on an atomic scale, and the interaction is difficult to accurately calculate due to nanometer size effects. In this work, the contact behavior is studied with the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, which indicates that the CNTs and AgNW can move towards each other to form aligned structures with their interfaces in full contact. In these different composite systems, nanotubes may either keep their form of an inherent cylindrical structure or completely collapse into the nanoribbons that can tightly scroll on the AgNW periphery while wrapping it in a core-shell structure. Thus, the atomic configuration evolution that is affected by the van der Waals (vdW) interaction is closely analyzed to assist the understanding of interfacial contact behavior.