The effects of nanoparticle geometry on adsorption at a solid-liquid interface*

Nanoparticle adhesion to liquid-solid interfaces has a wide range of applications in modern technologies and industrial processes such as batteries, self assembly, catalysis, and colloid filtration. Understanding the dynamics of nanoparticle adhesion to and diffusion on liquid-solid interfaces would allow us to improve on these and find new applications. Surface adhesion is currently modeled using DLVO theory which becomes less accurate at the nanoscale as uses perfect spheres and flat walls that do not account for the rough edges and finite contact areas seen in realistic particles and surfaces at the nanoscale. This work is a continuation of research that characterizes nanoparticle adhesion regimes, expected adhesion times, and post adsorption diffusivity parallel to the surface of adsorption in terms of interfacial energies using molecular dynamics simulations and theory. Here we examine the effects of adding various protrusions to the nanoparticle to slightly alter it's shape in one or more dimensions and use MD simulations to explore how the adsorption wall distance, adsorption time, preferred adsorption orientation, and post adsorption surface diffusivity change in response to the particle geometry.