Phase transition of confined gold nanoparticles: Replica exchange molecular dynamics study

Abstract

The classical molecular dynamics simulation was used to study the phase transition of gold nanoparticles under confinement using Sutton-Chen (SC) potential. Metal gold nanoparticles with different number of atoms are subject to replica exchange molecular dynamics simulation for this purpose. The simulation showing the solid-to-liquid melting temperature largely remains unaffected by confinement, while the confinement induces characteristic pre-melting at very low temperature depending on atom number in nanoparticles.