A track record of Au–Ag nanomelt generation during fluid‑mineral interactions Domínguez Carretero, Diego González Jiménez, José María García Casco, Antonio This research was financially supported by Grant PID 2019-105625RB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, by Grant 2021 SGR 00239 funded by Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca de Catalunya. Additional funding was provided by a “Ayudas predoctorales 2020” number PRE 2020-092140 PhD grant to DD-C by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Proyecto de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía (Spain), PROYECTEXCEL_00705 to JMGJ. Laura Casado (Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón (INA)—University of Zaragoza) and María del Mar Abad (CIC, University of Granada) are acknowledged for her assistance with FIB and HRTEM respectively The online version contains supplementary material available at https:// doi. org/ 10. 1038/ s41598- 023- 35066-y Recent studies have reported the significant role of Au-bearing nanoparticles in the formation of hydrothermal gold deposits. Despite the ever-increasing understanding of the genesis and stability of Au-bearing nanoparticles, it is still unknown how they behave when exposed to hydrothermal fluids. Here, we study the nanostructural evolution of Au–Ag nanoparticles hosted within Co-rich diarsenides and sulfarsenides of a natural hydrothermal deposit. We use high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to provide a singular glimpse of the complete melting sequence of Au–Ag nanoparticles exposed to the hydrothermal fluid during coupled dissolution–precipitation reactions of their host minerals. The interaction of Au–Ag nanoparticles with hydrothermal fluids at temperatures (400–500 ºC) common to most hydrothermal gold deposits may promote melting and generation of Au–Ag nanomelts. This process has important implications in noble metal remobilization and accumulation during the formation of these deposits. 2023-06-27T09:44:33Z 2023-06-27T09:44:33Z 2023-05-16 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Domínguez-Carretero, D., González-Jiménez, J.M., Proenza, J.A. et al. A track record of Au–Ag nanomelt generation during fluid-mineral interactions. Sci Rep 13, 7895 (2023). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35066-y] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/82871 10.1038/s41598-023-35066-y eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional Springer Nature