Due to their higher surface areas, nanoclusters are more sensitive and selective as catalysts or sensors. For instance, platinum or platinum alloy nanoclusters have wide applications as hydrogen sensors.
"Investigations on melting properties and their impacts on structural shape improves synthesis of metallic nanoclusters and leads to better understanding of their potential applications," Hamed Akbarzadeh, one of the researchers told INIC.
"Metallic nanoclusters are receiving interests because of their applications in catalysts and sensors these days," he added.
Akbarzadeh explained that to obtain the desired nanoclusters, melting properties of metallic nanoclusters like heat capacities were studied applying Sutton-Chen potentials through molecular dynamic simulations.
He also pointed to "investigation of the melting point, entropy/enthalpy and other thermodynamic properties as functions of temperature and cluster size" as major goals of the research.
Results of the research revealed that melting point of platinum nanoclusters increases as the number of particles available in the system decreases.
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