Drilling accurate nanopores for biosensors by energetic multi-wall carbon nanotubes: a molecular dynamics investigation

Drilling precise nanopores in thin layers is in rapid demand for biosensing applications. We demonstrate that an energetic multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) can be a good candidate to fabricate nanopores on graphene from molecular dynamics simulations with a bond-order potential. High-quality nanopores with expected size and smooth margins could be created by an incident nanotube at chosen size and energy. Besides, a nanotube is in advantage of absorbing and translocating many biological macromolecules due to its strong adsorption capacity. It implies a feasible way to drill nanopores and carry big molecules through the fabricated nanopores in one step for fast biosensing applications.