10.1039/c0cp01159bCrossRef 33. Kao TH, Song JM, Chen IG, Dong TY, Hwang WS:

Nanosized Etomoxir induced low-temperature alloying in binary and ternary noble alloy systems for micro-interconnect applications Original Research Article. Acta Mater 2011, 59:1184. 10.1016/j.actamat.2010.10.051CrossRef 34. Hutt DA, Leggett GJ: Influence of adsorbate ordering on rates of UV photooxidation of self-assembled monolayers. J Phys Chem 1996, 1000:6657.CrossRef 35. Tarlov MJ Jr, Burgess DRF, Gillen G: UV photopatterning of alkanethiolate monolayers self-assembled on gold and silver. J Am Chem Soc 1993, 115:5305. 10.1021/ja00065a056CrossRef 36. Lin Y, Zhang L, Yu D, Ge Y: Study of diffusion and marker movement in fcc Ag-Au alloys. JPEDAV 2008, 29:405. 10.1007/s11669-008-9355-3CrossRef 37. Rast L, Stanishevsky Selleck Selisistat A: Aggregated nanoparticle structures prepared by thermal decomposition of poly(vinyl)-N-pyrrolidone/Ag nanoparticle composite films. Appl Phys Lett 2005, 87:2231118.CrossRef 38. Buffat P,

Bore JP: Size effect on the melting temperature of gold particles. Phys Rev A 1976, 13:2287. 10.1103/PhysRevA.13.2287CrossRef 39. Andrievski RA: Size-dependent effects in properties of nanostructured materials. Rev Adv Mater Sci 2009, 21:107. 40. Li G, Wang Q, Liu T, Wang K, He J: Molecular dynamics simulation of the melting and coalescence in the mixed Cu–Ni nanoclusters. J Clust Sci 2010, 21:45. 10.1007/s10876-010-0281-2CrossRef 41. Xing Y, Rosner DE: Prediction of spherule size in gas phase nanoparticle synthesis. J Nanopart Res 1999, 1:277. 10.1023/A:1010021004233CrossRef 42. Chernyshev AP: Effect of nanoparticle size on the onset temperature of surface melting. Mater Lett 2009, 63:1525. 10.1016/j.matlet.2009.04.009CrossRef 43. Yeshchenko OA, Dmitruk IM, Alexeenko AA, Kotko AV: Surface plasmon as a probe for melting of silver nanoparticles. Nanotechnology 2010, 21:045203. 10.1088/0957-4484/21/4/045203CrossRef

44. Wagner C: Thermodynamics of the liquidus and the solidus of binary alloys. Acta Metall 1954, 2:242. 10.1016/0001-6160(54)90165-0CrossRef 45. Büttner M, Belser T, Oelhafen P: Stability of thiol-passivated gold particles at elevated temperatures studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. J Phys Chem B 2005, 109:5464. 10.1021/jp0462355CrossRef 46. Ulman A: Formation and structure of self-assembled monolayers. Chem Rev Tau-protein kinase 1996, 96:1533. 10.1021/cr9502357CrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions WTC and KHH carried out the main part of Selleckchem SRT1720 synthetic and SR-XRD analytical works. THK carried out the measurement of electrical and optical properties. JMS conceived the research idea, designed the experiments, and prepared the draft. IGC participated in the experimental design and the discussion of the phase transformations. HYL and SJC participated in the SR-XRD analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.