A New Approach to Model Size-Dependent Melting Point of Nanoparticles

As the particle size decreases into the nanometer range, the materials exhibit peculiar and interesting mechanical and physical properties, e.g. increased mechanical strength, different melting point, enhanced diffusivity, higher specific heat and electrical resistivity compared to conventional coarse grained counterparts. Lots of models have been developed to predict size-dependent melting point of nanoparticles. A new model based on the cluster mean coordination number calculations (MCN Model) is developed in this work. According to clusters atomic structures some statistical equations were used to calculate cluster mean coordination number. The results for Pb and Sn were compared with other models and experiments. The comparison indicates that the MCN model is in a good agreement with experimental results. It was also found that for elements of the same crystal structure, increasing atomic radius causes in more size-dependency of melting temperature

Keywords:

nanoparticles , melting point , mean coordination number , cohesive energy , cluster structure