Nucleation and growth of stellated gold clusters: Experimental synthesis and theoretical study

An experimental and theoretical study on the structure and energetics of stellated gold clusters at several sizes is presented. Systematic molecular dynamics simulations on Kepler-Poisont classified clusters are performed based on cuboctahedral and icosahedral cores, following present and previous studies that suggest that stellated clusters grew from these seeds. For cluster sizes up to 10802 atoms, full atomistic molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature have been carried out. Results show that stellated clusters in the bigger size regime maintain their star-like shape at room temperature, and by means of linear fitting of energy data to proper function models, it is predicted that the two types of stellated structures might coexist at room temperature for relatively large sizes, these findings being in good agreement with experimental results. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations; Cluster sizes; Energy data; Function models; Gold clusters; Large sizes; Linear fitting; Molecular dynamics simulations; Nucleation and growth; Room temperature; Star-like; Structure and energetics; Theoretical study; Molecular dynamics; Gold compounds

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