Gibbs free energy approach to the prediction of melting points of isolated, supported, and embedded nanoparticles

Abstract

By means of the thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of bulk materials, the Gibbs free energies for isolated, supported, and embedded nanoparticles were obtained and used to elucidate the sized-dependent melting phenomenon of the nanoparticles. To account for the substrate effect upon the melting point of nanoparticles, the interfacial energy of binary immiscible systems was studied in detail. It was found that the interfacial energy of a binary immiscible system including carbon can be replaced almost entirely by the contribution from carbon; thus, the reason why the melting model of isolated nanoparticles can be applied to research the melting of the supported nanoparticles was clarified. Moreover, a new approach to achieving the diameter of the smallest crystalline nanoparticles was proposed based on the melting behavior of embedded nanoparticles.