On the selective decoration of facets in metallic nanoparticles

This work presents key modeling aspects that are central to the manipulation of the decoration of metallic nanoparticles by a thin shell of a metal of different chemical nature. The concept of underpotential deposition is generalized to nanoparticles. An all-atom model, taking into account many-body interactions by means of the embedded atom potential, was used to represent nanoparticles of different sizes and atomic adsorbates on them. A full set of state-of-the-art computer simulations are performed for a model system, showing that selective decoration of facets is possible. The trends observed in the present work are in good qualitative agreement with experimental data reported very recently.