Finite-size effects on the lattice dynamics in spin crossover nanomaterials. II. Molecular dynamics simulations

In the first part of this work, an experimental study of the lattice dynamics of spin crossover nanoparticles was performed using the nuclear inelastic scattering (NIS). A size dependence of low energy phonon modes appears under 10 nm, but its origin is not well understood. In this paper, we investigate the phonon confinement effects in the framework of molecular dynamics simulations by modeling three-dimensional nanoparticles considering a cubic lattice with an octahedral pattern. The vibrational density of states is computed and compared to the experiment. The simulations allow one to highlight both the role of the phonon quantification and the role of the size and shape distributions of particles on the extracted parameters leading to a better understanding of the experimental results.