| Abstract
| - The development of novel nanomaterials has been a subject of intense interest in recent years. An interestingstructure among these materials is the so-called “pea pods” (i.e., nanoparticles confined in nanotubes). To facilitatethe development and commercialization of these materials, it is important that we have an in-depth understanding oftheir behavior. The study of confined charged particles is particularly challenging because of the long-ranged natureof electrostatic interaction, and both interparticle and particle-confinement interactions are likely to play a role indetermining the system behavior. The primary objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of thebehavior of charged nanoparticles in a charged tubular confinement using Monte Carlo simulation, with particularfocus on the effect of electrostatic interactions on the structure of the particles. Simulation results have shown that(i) the structuring of confined particles is associated with the asymmetry of the long-ranged interaction and (ii) factorssuch as confinement geometry and particle charge and size asymmetry can be manipulated to produce different particlestructures. The present study represents the first step in an attempt to gain further insight into the behavior of confinednanosystems, with the ultimate objective of exploiting these characteristics, particularly the interactions between theconfined particles and their external environment, in developing novel nanomaterials.
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