Nanoparticle sintering simulations1

Molecular dynamics techniques were used to simulate Cu and Au nanoparticle arrays at different temperatures to study surface energies, grain boundary mobility and sintering. Preliminary results of the studies on multi-particle arrays several hundred degrees below the melting point (Tm) show unexpectedly strong contributions from plastic deformation, mechanical rotations, amorphisation and ultra-rapid atomic force driven diffusion effects. Evidence is offered that the basic processes and kinetics of nanoscale sintering are fundamentally different from that of normal micronscale sintering.