title: Molecular dynamics study on the nucleation of Al-Si melts on sheet substrates at the nanoscale.
abstract: Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to study the freezing process of Al-Si melts on heterogeneous Si substrates in detail. We highlight the inherent nanostructure of both the Si primary phase and the Al-Si binary phase. It is found for the first time that the primary Si phase displays a "pyramidal configuration" when the Al-Si melt congeals. Experimental measurements could also verify our simulation results. It can be found that the binary Al-Si phase turns into a "Si-Al-Si sandwich construction" during solidification, regardless of freezing on a single substrate or in the restricted space between substrates. This peculiar phenomenon results from the combined effects of the van der Waals potential well and the interatomic interaction between Al and Si. Furthermore, it is also able to control the thickness of the Si atomic shell of the "sandwich construction", resulting in the silicene-like unilaminar Si nanostructure. Our findings provide novel strategies to fabricate desired shaped nanostructures by means of nanocasting in Al-Si melts at the nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Tsingdao 266100, People's Republic of China. wangxinhd@ouc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Sida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Xuyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Weikang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiangzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yunrui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, People's Republic of China. lihuilmy@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Tsingdao 266100, People's Republic of China. wangxinhd@ouc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang