Binding Energies of Charged Metal Nanoparticle Configurations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to calculate the electrostatic energy and polarization of charged metal nanoparticles in arbitrary arrangements, providing insights into their preferred configurations and the influence of geometry on interactions.

Contribution

A novel computational approach for determining the electrostatic energies and polarizations of charged metal nanoparticle configurations to arbitrary multipole order.

Findings

Method reveals how configuration geometry affects electrostatic interactions.

Calculations help predict stable arrangements of charged metal nanoparticles.

Insights into the role of multipole interactions in nanoscale assembly.

Abstract

The electrostatic interaction between metal spheres is an influential component in the assembly of many nanoscale materials in chemistry. Here we derive a method to calculate the energy and polarizations of metal spheres in arbitrary configurations to an arbitrary multipole order. This helps provide insight into the preferred configurations of charged metal particles and demonstrates the sensitivity of electrostatic interactions to configuration geometry.