A model for the latent heat of melting in free standing metal nanoparticles

J Chem Phys. 2014 Apr 28;140(16):164707. doi: 10.1063/1.4870829.

Abstract

Nanoparticles of many metals are known to exhibit scale dependent latent heats of melting. Analytical models for this phenomenon have so far failed to completely capture the observed phenomena. Here we present a thermodynamic analysis for the melting of metal nanoparticles in terms of their internal energy and a scale dependent surface tension proposed by Tolman. The resulting model predicts the scale dependence of the latent heat of melting and is confirmed using published data for tin and aluminum.