The simplest, single-component biological membrane challenges accepted models of macromolecular interactions: lipid lamellar phases swell when immersed in monovalent salt solutions. Moreover, typical of a Hofmeister series, Br salts swell multilayers more than Cl salts, offering an excellent opportunity to investigate long-standing questions of ionic specificity. In accord with earlier measurem...

The nature of halogen bonding in 128 complexes was investigated using advanced quantum mechanical calculations. First, isolated halogen donors were studied and their σ-holes were described in terms of size and magnitude. Later, both partners in the complex were considered and their interaction was described in terms of DFT-SAPT decomposition. The whole set of complexes under study was split int...

The accurate description of van der Waals forces within density functional theory is currently one of the most active areas of research in computational physics and chemistry. Here we report results on the structural and energetic properties of graphite and hexagonal boron nitride, two layered materials where interlayer binding is dominated by van der Waals forces. Results from several density ...

Seeking for thermoelectric (TE) materials with high figure of merit (or ZT), which can directly converts low-grade wasted heat (400 to 500 K) into electricity, has been a big challenge. Inspired by the concept of multilayer thermionic devices, we propose and design a solid-state thermionic devices (as a power generator or a refrigerator) in using van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure sandwiched b...

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have shown great potential for electronic and optoelectronic applications. However, their development is limited by a large Schottky barrier (SB) at the metal-semiconductor junction (MSJ), which is difficult to tune by using conventional metals because of the effect of strong Fermi level pinning (FLP). We show that this problem can be overcome by using 2D met...

Interfacial adhesion between graphene and a SiO2 substrate is studied by density functional theory (DFT) with dispersion corrections. The results demonstrate the van der Waals (vdW) interaction as the predominant mechanism at the graphene/SiO2 interface. It is found that the interaction strength is strongly influenced by changes of the SiO2 surface structures due to surface reactions with water...

Van der Waals (vdW) interaction between two-dimensional crystals (2D) can trap substances in high pressurized (of order 1 GPa) on nanobubbles. Increasing the adhesion between the 2D crystals further enhances the pressure and can lead to a phase transition of the trapped material. We found that the shape of the nanobubble can depend critically on the properties of the trapped substance. In the a...

In this paper, the radial breathing mode (RBM) frequencies of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are  obtained based on the multiple-elastic thin shell model. For this purpose, MWCNT is considered as a multiple concentric elastic thin cylindrical shells, which are coupled through van der Waals (vdW) forces between two adjacent tubes. Lennard-Jones potential is used to calculate the vdW ...