Dodecagonal quasicrystal silicene: preparation, mechanical property, and friction behaviour

Abstract

In this study, we obtained dodecagonal monolayer silicene with three-fold and four-fold coordination by melt quenching via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Stretching simulation of the pre-strained dodecagonal silicene showed lower critical stress than the honeycomb silicene and resulted in an increase in six-fold rings during the plastic deformation since the four-coordinated atom sites are less mechanically favoured than the three-coordinated sites. The friction behaviours with an AFM tip sliding on the dodecagonal and honeycomb surfaces under different loads and tip sizes were simulated and compared. For all the investigated cases, the dodecagonal surface always showed a lower mean friction force than the honeycomb surface. The lower friction of the quasicrystal was observed, and the mechanism was illuminated successfully for the first time by MD simulations. The reduced friction of dodecagonal silicene can be explained by the morphology of the one-dimensional potential energy surface (PES). The 1D PES of dodecagonal silicene has longer potential corrugation lengths than honeycomb silicene, which induce mild motion of the tip in the stick process and lower friction force. Considering the close density of the employed dodecagonal and honeycomb structure, the longer potential corrugation length is a consequence of the quasiperiodic morphology rather than the interspace between atoms. Besides, with a larger tip size, the 1D PES on the dodecagonal surface has a flatter area, which contributes further to the reduced friction force on the dodecagonal surface.