Impact of cooling rate on the morphology of coalescence silver nanoparticles

The effects of the kinetic energy of the colliding Ag clusters, the cooling rate, and the reaction chamber temperature on the structures of product Ag particles were studied using molecular dynamics simulations with a cluster Sutton-Chen potential. The results show that cooling rate is the most significant factor in the structure of the final product. A cooling rate of 1.5625 × 1011 K/s with a chamber temperature of 300 K generates a crystalline structure. In contrast, a rapid cooling rate, 1.5625 × 1013 K/s, is more likely to produce an amorphous structure due to the lack of enough kinetic energy to overcome potential barriers.