Sintering behavior and activation energy calculation of nanoparticulate Fe3O4: a molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

This study employs molecular dynamic simulations to investigate the sintering mechanisms of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and determine the sintering activation energy. The melting temperature has been calculated using atomic volume to verify the accuracy of this EAM function and its parameters. Neck width has been defined to demonstrate the sintering degree under different temperatures, from 1373 K to 1773 K. Following sections divide the whole evolution into three mechanisms: surface diffusion, grain boundary diffusion and viscous flow according to the atomic migration vector. Finally, the sintering activation energy has been figured out based on the neck diameter ratio which later has been employed to predict the neck growth curve at 1523 K. Therefore, this investigation reveals the sintering mechanisms and introduces a method to predict the growth rate using activation energy.