Редколлегия Физикохимия Поверхности и Защита Материалов - Static and Dynamic Models of the Structure of Magic Silver Nanoclusters

Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Leninskii pr. 31, Moscow, 119991 Russia

Abstract — The relationship between static and dynamic models of the nanoparticle structure is considered based on the analysis of magic properties of silver clusters (results of molecular dynamics experiments). Dynamics of silver nanoclystals with cuboctahedral morphology in the nanosize range is characterized by the cooperative motion of atoms in the layers equidistant from the nanoparticle mass center. In this case, the cub-octahedral nanoparticles pass in a more stable icosahedral shape. The motion of atoms in a stable icosahedral cluster passes into a stationary oscillation mode (diffusion is absent). The distribution of middle positions around which atoms in a cluster oscillate suggests that the clusters simultaneously exhibit the properties of a liquid (reduced density that approaches the melt density) and a solid. The clusters have the regular non-crystalline structure (the shells of atoms equidistant from the cluster center form the Platonic and Archimedean bodies).