Copyright © 2015 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Article Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Vol. 15, 1–9, 2015 www.aspbs.com/jnn Chain Assemblies from Nanoparticles Synthesized by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition: The Computational View Maxim V. Mishin 1 , Kirill Y. Zamotin 2 , Vera S. Protopopova 3 , and Sergey E. Alexandrov 1 ∗ 1 Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Department of Physical Chemistry and Technology of Microsystem Devices, 195251, Saint Petersburg, The Russian Federation 2 Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Laboratory of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 195251, Saint Petersburg, The Russian Federation 3 Aalto University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 16200, Espoo, Finland This article refers to the computational study of nanoparticle self-organization on the solid-state substrate surface with consideration of the experimental results, when nanoparticles were synthe- sised during atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD). The experimental study of silicon dioxide nanoparticle synthesis by AP-PECVD demonstrated that all deposit volume consists of tangled chains of nanoparticles. In certain cases, micron-sized fractals are formed from tangled chains due to deposit rearrangement. This work is focused on the study of tangled chain formation only. In order to reveal their formation mechanism, a physico-mathematical model was developed. The suggested model was based on the motion equation solution for charged and neutral nanoparticles in the potential fields with the use of the empirical interaction potentials. In addition, the computational simulation was carried out based on the suggested model. As a result, the influence of such experimental parameters as deposition duration, particle charge, gas flow velocity, and angle of gas flow was found. It was demonstrated that electrical charges carried by nanoparticles from the discharge area are not responsible for the formation of tangled chains from nanoparticles, whereas nanoparticle kinetic energy plays a crucial role in deposit morphology and density. The computational results were consistent with experimental results. Keywords: Self-Assembly Phenomenon, Tangled Chains of Nanoparticles, Surface Agglomeration, AP-PECVD, Physical Model, Computational Simulation. 1. INTRODUCTION Self-assembly appears to be a widespread phenomenon in nature. 1 2 This phenomenon includes various kinds of spontaneous or induced processes causing the forma- tion of ordered structures at the molecular, 3 4 nano- 5–7 or macro-scale level. 8 9 In the nanotechnology world, self-assembly of nano-objects (nanoparticles, nanotubes, etc.) is expected to become the main moving force for the development of new technologies to replace exis- tent costly and complicated methods of pattern fabrica- tion. For instance, this technology, such as electron beam lithography, 10 11 is expensive and has resolution limita- tions (∼10 nm). 12 It should be noted that mechanisms ∗ Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. of self-organization processes have been widely studied for molecules 3 4 13 14 or nanoobjects 15–17 in liquid and nanoparticles in aerosols. 18–20 However, those processes are hardly compatible with integrated circuit silicon tech- nology, which requires the formation of self-assembled systems on the solid-state surface. Therefore the search for a new process is worthwhile. One approach for self-assembled structure fabrication can be vapour phase deposition, which commonly used for nanoparticle synthesis. 21–28 Among different deposi- tion techniques, atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (AP-PECVD) is of high interest due to several advantages, for example: (1) the convenience of use and the simplicity of hard- ware design, (2) high concentrations of precursors in the J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2015, Vol. 15, No. xx 1533-4880/2015/15/001/009 doi:10.1166/jnn.2015.11043 1