Nanocar & nanotruck motion on gold surface

In this paper we have studied the motion of a nanocar and nanotruck on gold substrate using the classical molecular dynamics method. Analyzing the motion regime of the nanocar at different temperatures is one of the main goals of this paper. In the past years, similar molecules such as Trimmer, Z-car and nanotruck have been simulated by Konyukhov and Akimov. To increase the modeling accuracy in this paper we have used classical molecular dynamics contrary to previous works which used a rigid body molecular dynamics method. The result of our simulations were compared qualitatively to the experimental tests performed by Zhang et al. [12]. There was a good agreement between the results achieved from our simulations and the experimental observations. We found that the motion of both molecules can be divided into 3 different regimes: immobility at 200K and lower temperatures, short range displacements between 200K to 400K, and long range movements at 500 K and higher temperatures. Furthermore, the bigger and more flexible chassis of a nanocar reduces the speed of the nanocar with respect to a nanotruck. The results lead to the better understanding of nanocar motion and reveal exclusive motion details of both molecules and elucidate their use in practical applications.