Stability of solvated nanosheet in shear flow

摘要

The behavior of a solvated nanosheet, such as graphene, in bidirectional shear flow is explained using molecular dynamics and theoretical scaling arguments. Depending on the tilt angle and fluid shear, a nanosheet could adopt one of three macroscopic bending modes, namely, flipping, arching, or flexing. At sufficiently small tilt angles, conditional stability is possible due to a countertorque produced by the solvation shell radius. Thermal effects are found to play a weak role in the overall rotational dynamics. The present findings could have practical implications on the rheology of a suspension of nanosheets.