Composition effect on melting behaviors of Cu-Au-Pt trimetallic nanoalloys

In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were performed on 55-atom icosahedral Cu13AunPt42-n, Au13CunPt42-n and Pt13AunCu42-n (n=1-41) nanoalloys. In order to present the composition effect on the melting behaviors in detail, three different icosahedral compositions corresponding to Cu13Au13Pt29, Au13Cu29Pt13 and Pt13Au29Cu13 were selected from Cu13AunPt42-n, Au13CunPt42-n and Pt13AunCu42-n nanoalloy systems. The temperature dependence of the caloric curve, Lindemann index, heat capacity and root mean square displacement methods was analyzed thoroughly to clarify the simulation results. The simulation results showed that the melting temperature is closely associated with the composition and also atomic distribution of the nanoalloys. It was observed that Au atoms are generally more movable than Cu and Pt atoms in Cu-Au-Pt trimetallic nanoalloys with increasing temperature. Moreover, the Lindemann index variations of second and third layers showed that pre-melting of shell occurs especially for Au13Cu29Pt13 and Pt13Au29Cu13 nanoalloys in these three compositions.Graphical abstract
Source: Computational and Theoretical Chemistry - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research