Phase transitions, coexistence and crystal growth dynamics in ionic nanoclusters: Theory and simulation

A review of our work on phase transitions, coexistence and crystal growth dynamics in ionic nanoclusters is presented. The foundations and limitations of the proposed models are discussed and perspectives for extended treatments are given. Additionally, supported on a compilation of the asymptotic behaviour of the properties towards bulk conditions, new results concerned with the operational meaning of the thermodynamic limit are also presented. Some topics are complemented with link references to on-line animations that provide a visualisation of the focused behaviours. The simulations were carried out by molecular dynamics on KCl, NaCl, LiCl and NaI clusters.