  Periodically corrugated epitaxial graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)
on metallic substrates are considered as perspective templates for the
self-assembly of nanoparticles arrays. By using first-principles calculations,
we determine binding energies and diffusion activation barriers of metal
adatoms on graphene and h-BN. The observed chemical trends can be understood in
terms of the interplay between charge transfer and covalent bonding involving
the adatom d electrons. We further investigate the electronic effects of the
metallic substrate and find that periodically corrugated templates based on
graphene in combination with strong interactions at the metal/graphene
interface are the most suitable for the self-assembly of highly regular
nanoparticle arrays.
