https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2012-30054-0
Regular Article
Structure and thermal stability of AgCu chiral nanoparticles
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova and
IMEM/CNR, Via Dodecaneso
33, 16146
Genova,
Italy
a e-mail: ferrando@fisica.unige.it
Received:
22
January
2012
Received in final form:
29
February
2012
Published online:
17
May
2012
The structure and thermal stability of AgCu core-shell chiral nanoparticles is investigated by means of global optimization searches and molecular-dynamics simulations within an atomistic model. The most energetically stable structures are searched for depending on the number NAg of Ag atoms in the outer shell. Both icosahedral and C5 symmetry structures are considered. The thermal stability of the structures is studied for magic sizes and compositions by analyzing the melting transition. It is found that chiral shells are the most favourable in a wide range of NAg and that the structures present a notable thermal stability.
Key words: Topical issue: Atomic Cluster Collisions. Guest editors: Andrey V. Solov’yov and Andrey V. Korol
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag 2012
