Melting Behaviour of Core-Shell Structured Ag--Rh Bimetallic Clusters

The melting behaviour of four typical core-shell structured 309-atom Ag--Rh bimetallic clusters, with decahedral and icosahedral geometric configurations, is investigated by using molecular dynamics simulation, based on the Sutton--Chen potential. The initial atomic configurations are obtained from semi-grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that the melting point temperature T_m increases with the mole fraction of Rh in the bimetallic clusters, and T_m of Ag--Rh icosahedral clusters is higher than those of Ag--Rh decahedral clusters with the same Rh mole fraction. It is also found that the Ag atoms lie on the surface of Ag--Rh bimetallic clusters even after melting.