Size dependence of the entropies of melting and crystallisation of metal nanoparticles

Abstract

Size dependences of melting and crystallisation entropies of metal nanoparticles (of copper and gold) have been studied using atomistic simulation results (molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo) and some theoretical considerations. The size dependence of melting entropy is more pronounced than that of crystallisation entropy. The behaviour of the size dependence of the melting entropy has been found to be complex and ambiguous. However, all thermodynamic models predict that the melting entropy of nanoparticles is lower than the corresponding bulk value and increases with growing particle size, and tends to the bulk value when the particle size tends to infinity.