Stable structures and potential energy surface of the metallic clusters: Ni, Cu, Ag, Au, Pd, and Pt

Abstract

Metallic clusters have been widely studied due to their special electrical, optical, and catalytic properties. The many-body Gupta potential is applied to describe the interatomic interaction of Ni, Cu, Ag, Au, Pd, and Pt clusters, and their global minimal structures within 100 atoms are optimized using dynamic lattice searching (DLS) method. The configurational distribution of global minima is analyzed, and the geometrical difference among these clusters is demonstrated. Results show that the dominant motif of Ni and Cu clusters is the icosahedron, and in Ag and Au clusters the number of decahedra is slightly larger than that of the icosahedra. However, more face-centered cubic (fcc), stacking fault fcc, and amorphous structures are formed in Au clusters than in Ag clusters. Furthermore, the main motif of Pd and Pt clusters is the decahedron. In particular, Ni₉₈ adopts a Leary tetrahedral motif, and Pt₅₄ is a central vacant icosahedron. The difference related to the potential parameters of these metallic clusters is further investigated by energy analysis. Moreover, the potential energy surfaces (PES) of 38-atom metallic clusters is characterized in terms of conformational analysis. It was found that the sequence of the number of local minima on the PES from large to low is Ni, Cu, Ag, Pt, Pd, and Au.

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