Size Dependent Properties of Hollow Gold Nanoparticles: A Theoretical Investigation

A new kind of nanostructures with the negative curvature defined as the hollow ones have recently used in biomedical applications. In this work, an analytic model was developed to compute the size-dependent properties of spherical hollow gold nanoparticles in shell-core-shell configuration. This model has established to calculate the cohesive energies based on the surface energy consideration depending on sizes of inner and outer surfaces of hollow nanoparticles. The size and geometry of the model particles have been obtained by using the stability diagram and the collapsing mechanism was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The model has been also applied to the hollow particles within unstable and half stable geometry. The predicted results have been compared with each other and those obtained by solid ones. The theoretically predicted size dependent properties are consistent with experimental observations and the hollow quantum dot calculations. Thus, an atomistic insight into the size effect on the cohesive energies of hollow nanoparticles has been presented.