Synthesis, characterization, and growth simulations of Cu–Pt bimetallic nanoclusters

• Subarna Khanal,
• Ana Spitale,
• Nabraj Bhattarai,
• Daniel Bahena,
• J. Jesus Velazquez-Salazar,
• Sergio Mejía-Rosales,
• Marcelo M. Mariscal and
• Miguel José-Yacaman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1371–1379, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.150

• –Pt clusters; energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX); grand-canonical Langevin dynamics; nanoalloys; scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM); Introduction The study of bimetallic (BM) nanoclusters has received particular interest because of their myriad properties and applications in

• novel simulation method to study the growth mechanism of CuPt bimetallic nanoclusters; in particular, we explored the attaching of Pt atoms on Cu seeds by using grand-canonical Langevin dynamics (GCLD) simulations, which shows the formation of alloy structures in good agreement with empirical evidence

• with a probe current of 86 pA. Models and simulation method The simulation method employed is a grand-canonical Langevin dynamics (GCLD). Langevin dynamics is a method that extends molecular dynamics to represent the effect of perturbations caused by friction and eventual collisions occurring due to