Scaling relations for the continuum limit from collisions between nanoclusters and rough surfaces*

Nanoclusters have wide ranges of applications for their unique size-dependent properties. We report molecular dynamics simulation studies of the coalescence of small clusters with each other and with heterogeneous surfaces, as well as bouncing and fragmentation of clusters. Specifically, we study collisions of dust particles consisting of silica and water molecules and study the aftermath immediately following the collisions. We vary cluster sizes from 10 – 1000 nm containing 1000 – 100,000 particles with an aim to derive scaling relations for the elastic limit so that the extracted elastic parameters for the extrapolated continuum models can be used to study clusters of much larger sizes beyond the scope of simulation studies.