(NaCl)₃₅Cl^-

Medium-sized sodium chloride clusters form nanocrystals that have the rock-salt structure. At any given size, there are usually a number different cuboidal shapes that the nanocrystal can have. For (NaCl)₃₅Cl^- there are four shapes: 5 x 5 x 3, 6 x 4 x 3, 8 x 3 x 3 and 5 x 4 x 4. Nanocrystals of the first three shapes have been detected in experiments. As the barriers for structural transformations between the different nanocrystals are large, the energy landscape has a multiple funnel topography with each funnel corresponding to a particular cuboidal form.

Associated Publications

• J.P.K. Doye and D.J. Wales, J. Chem. Phys. 111, 11070-11079 (1999)
  The dynamics of structural transitions in sodium chloride clusters