Nano-construction sites get new building blocks

02.09.2010

The building blocks of matter have always been rectilinear–until now. Modeling of macroscopic materials has been done with one type of a building block, duplicating it linearly in different directions, such as building a huge wall from Lego-blocks, using just one type of block. This modeling has been enabled by Bloch's theorem, an 81-year-old cornerstone of material science.

Meanwhile, nanoscience has introduced new structures, nanotubes, nanotori, nanowires and atomically thin membranes and films. Unlike a chunk of metal, flimsy nanostructures stay rarely sraight, and get frequently twisted, bent, wrapped, rippled, or otherwise distorted in practice. Rectilinear order gets broken and building blocks get distorted; Bloch's theorem becomes invalid.

To solve this fundamental problem, researchers from the University of Jyväskylä updated Bloch's theorem for the new millennium. The update provides nanoscientists new building blocks that can be distorted in many ways, to enable computer modeling of realistic nanostructures. ”The results can be compared with a situation where a boy, bored in building the same old straight walls using the same rectangular Lego-blocks, finds blocks with new shapes–an opportunity to build something completely new,” describes Pekka Koskinen from the NanoScience Center the significance of the result. The research, published in the esteemed journal Physical Review Letters, was also granted the status ”Editor's Suggestion”. The research was funded by the Academy of Finland, and it used the computer resources by the Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC) in Espoo.

Additional information:

Adj. Prof. Pekka Koskinen, pekka.koskinen at iki.fi puh (014) 260 4717

P. Koskinen, O. O. Kit Efficient Approach for Simulating Distorted Materials, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 106401

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