Collective Bistability of Pyridine-Furan Nanosprings Coupled by a Graphene Plate

Nanometer-sized molecular structures exhibiting mechanical-like switching between discrete states are of great interest for their potential uses in nanotechnology and materials science. Designing such structures and understanding how they can be combined to operate synchronously is a key to creating nanoscale functional units. Notable examples recently discovered using atomistic simulations are pyridine-furan and pyridine-pyrrole nanosprings. When slightly stretched in aqueous or organic solutions, these nanosprings exhibit bistable dynamics akin to Duffing nonlinear oscillators. Based on these findings, we designed a hybrid system consisting of several pyridine-furan nanosprings attached to a graphene plate in organic solvent and simulated the molecular dynamics of the construct. Our focus is on how the nanosprings coupled by a graphene plate work together, and whether such a design enables the nanosprings to respond synchronously to random perturbations and weak external stimuli. Molecular dynamics simulations of this specific construct are complemented by a theoretical model of coupled bistable systems to understand how the synchronization depends on coupling of bistable units.