In this study, a new method developed for the generation of periodic atomistic models of coated and uncoated nanoporous metals (NPMs) is presented by examining the thermodynamic stability of coated nanoporous structures. The proposed method is mainly based on the Voronoi tessellation technique, which provides the ability to control cross-sectional dimension and slenderness of ligaments as well as the thickness of coating. By the utilization of the method, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of randomly structured NPMs with coating can be performed efficiently in order to investigate their physical characteristics. In this context, for the purpose of demonstrating the functionality of the method, sample atomistic models of Au/Pt NPMs are generated and the effects of coating and porosity on the thermodynamic stability are investigated by using MD simulations. In addition to that, uniaxial tensile loading simulations are performed via MD technique to validate the nanoporous models by comparing the effective Young’s modulus values with the results from literature. Based on the results, while it is demonstrated that coating the nanoporous structures slightly decreases the structural stability causing atomistic configurational changes, it is also shown that the stability of the atomistic models is higher at lower porosities. Furthermore, adaptive common neighbour analysis is also performed to identify the stabilized atomistic structure after the coating process, which provides direct foresights for the mechanical behaviour of coated nanoporous structures.

This paper investigates the compressive and shear properties of nanoporous gold (np-Au) coated with different ultrathin metallic materials (i.e., platinum and silver) via molecular dynamics simulations. Atomistic models used for the geometric representation of coated and uncoated np-Au structures are generated through a modeling technique based on the Voronoi tessellation method. Three different coating thickness values are used to examine the role of thickness for the coating performance under compressive and shear loading by comparing the mechanical characteristics of the atomistic models such as Young's modulus, yield, and ultimate strengths. Moreover, adaptive common neighbor analyses are carried out by monitoring the evolution of the crystal structure of the specimens during the loading process. In this way, the deformation mechanisms of coated and uncoated nanoporous specimens are identified thoroughly. As a key finding from the simulation results, it is observed that the mechanical properties of np-Au are crucially dependent on the type of the coating material. However, a significant improvement on the toughness within the plastic regime is demonstrated for all types of coating materials and loading conditions.