Molecular dynamical simulations of melting behaviors of metal clusters

The melting behaviors of metal clusters are studied in a wide range by molecular dynamics simulations. The calculated results show that there are fluctuations in the heat capacity curves of some metal clusters due to the strong structural competition; For the 13-, 55- and 147-atom clusters, variations of the melting points with atomic number are almost the same; It is found that for different metal clusters the dynamical stabilities of the octahedral structures can be inferred in general by a criterion proposed earlier by F. Baletto et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 116 3856 (2002)] for the statically stable structures.