Molecular dynamics simulation has been performed to study melting behavior of aluminum nanowires (NWs) encapsulated in armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Results show that intriguing phenomena may appear when the diameters of the inner NWs exceed a threshold value that melting occurs first at the inner layers, followed by the diffusion of the inner atoms toward the surface layers. Two melting temperatures can be obtained while the first one is even lower than that of the free-standing one in some cases and the second one is slightly higher than the bulk. The lengths of the tubes also have a great effect on the melting behavior of the inner NWs. This abnormal melting behavior is might due to the van der Waals potential well in SWCNTs.

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Nanowelding, self-healing and mechanical stabilities of conductive networks of Cu-Ag core-shell nanowires are of vital importance for their extensive applications. In this study, atomistic simulations are used to reveal the...