Freezing of silver nanodroplets

The freezing of silver nanodroplets is studied by molecular dynamics simulations on time scales which mimic typical experimental situations. At small sizes (2-3 nm) both crystalline and non-crystalline structures (icosahedra and decahedra) are observed: while at large sizes, also around magic icosahedral numbers, we show that silver droplets solidify preferentially as non-icosahedral clusters. We compare two different ways of growing clusters: the solid-state growth from a very small seed and the freezing of a droplet. We find that the final shape of clusters depends on the growth process, and that the solid-state growth gives results in better agreement with the experiments. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.