Open Access

ARTICLE

Size and Composition Dependence of the Frozen Structures in Co-Based Bimetallic Clusters

by

1 Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China

Structural Longevity 2011, 6(3), 145-154. https://doi.org/10.3970/sl.2011.006.145

Abstract

This paper studies the size-dependent freezing of Co, Co-Ni, and CoCu clusters by using molecular dynamics with a general embedded atom method. There is size effect occurs in these three types of clusters. The clusters with large sizes always freeze to form their bulk-like structures. However, the frozen structures for small sizes are generally related to their compositions. The icosahedral clusters are formed for Co clusters (for ≤3.2 nm diameter) and also for Co-Ni clusters but at a larger size range (for ≤4.08 nm). Upon Co-Cu clusters, decohedral structure is obtained for small size (for 2.47 nm). The released energy induced the structural transformation plays a key role in the frozen structures. These results indicate that the preformed clusters with special structures can be tuned by controlling their compositions and sizes.

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