Origin and nature of spontaneous shape fluctuations in "small" nanoparticles

Normally chemically inert materials such as Au have been found to be catalytically active in the form of particles whose size is about 1 nm. Direct and indirect observations of various types of metal nanoparticles (NPs) in this size range, under catalytically relevant conditions for fuel-cell operation and catalysis, have indicated that such "small" particles can exhibit large spontaneous shape fluctuations and significant changes in shape and chemical activity in response to alterations in environmental conditions. NPs also normally exhibit facile coalescence when in proximity, impacting their stability and reactivity in applications. We perform molecular dynamics simulations on Ni nanoparticles, a commonly used NP in catalytic applications and carbon nanotube growth, in the ≈1 nm size regime where large-scale shape fluctuations have been observed experimentally. An analysis of the large-scale shape fluctuations observed in our simulations of these "small" NPs indicates that they are accompanied by collective motion of Ni atoms through the NP center, and we quantify these dynamic structures and their impact on NP shape. In contrast, stringlike collective atomic motion is confined to the NP interfacial region of NPs having a diameter greater than a few nanometers, and correspondingly, the overall NP shape remains roughly spherical, a case studied in our prior Ni NP simulations. Evidently, the large spontaneous NP shape fluctuations reflect a change in character of the collective atomic dynamics when the NPs become critically small in size.