Calculation of the Temperature Dependence of the Surface Energy of Metal Nanoclusters in a Wide Range of Their Radii

This study explores the effect of the radius of silver nanospheres and temperature on the total potential energy of the system as well as on the surface energy and energy of bulk atoms and binding energy of surface and bulk atoms. An approach is developed for calculating the surface energy of spherical nanoclusters. The investigation is performed for silver nanospheres with a radius of 2 to 8 nm by molecular dynamics simulations. The interaction of Ag atoms with each other is described using an embedded atom potential.