Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Solidification of Pd-Ni Clusters with Different Nickel Content

Molecular dynamics simulation has been performed for investigating the glass transition of Pd-Ni alloy nanoparticles in the solidification process. The results showed that the Pd-Ni nanoparticles with composition far from pure metal should form amorphous structure more easily, which is in accordance with the results of the thermodynamic calculation. There are some regular and distorted fivefold symmetry in the amorphous Pd-Ni alloy nanoparticles. The nanoclusters with bigger difference value between formation enthalpies of solutions and glasses will transform to glass more easily than the other Pd-Ni alloy nanoclusters.