Influence of initial distance and heating rate on the aggregation of Cu and Au nanoparticles: a MD study

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of interparticle distance and heating rate on the aggregation characteristics of Cu/Au nanoparticles using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and focuses on discussing the effects of the two above-mentioned factors on the entire system. Our results suggested that the reduction in heating rate and increasing the initial distance of the particles would both contribute to raising the initial sintering temperature. However, when the particles’ initial distance was greater than the cut-off radius of the system, the initial sintering temperature was not increased any longer, but fluctuated within a certain range. Furthermore, the sintering force of the nanoparticles at the initial sintering temperature was investigated, and it was found that the heating rate made no obvious difference to it. Nonetheless, the sintering force varied under different initial distance of the particles (at the same heating rate) due to system energy changes.