Freezing of silver nanodroplets

The freezing of silver nanodroplets is studied by molecular dynamics simulations on time scales which mimic typical experimental situations. At small sizes (2–3 nm) both crystalline and non-crystalline structures (icosahedra and decahedra) are observed; while at large sizes, also around magic icosahedral numbers, we show that silver droplets solidify preferentially as non-icosahedral clusters. We compare two different ways of growing clusters: the solid-state growth from a very small seed and the freezing of a droplet. We find that the final shape of clusters depends on the growth process, and that the solid-state growth gives results in better agreement with the experiments.