Abstract
The present study extends the Einstein model for heat capacity of solids to nanoclusters. Inthe case of small phases the contribution of surface energy to overall thermodynamicproperties of the system is essential. On that physical background, the heat capacitydepends on the size of cluster through its interface energy. Employing the samerelation between Einstein temperature and the cluster melting point as that forthe infinitely large phase, we derive a simple expression for the heat capacity,CV(n), dependence on the number of atoms in the cluster,n. We explain the experimentally observed increase ofCV(n) compared to of an infinitely large homogeneous phase, with lowering of the Einstein temperature due to thecontribution of the cluster interface energy. The heat capacity in the model presented scales at highT with the classicalDulong and Petit 3R limit and tends to zero for as required by the third law of thermodynamics. The model reported could be applied tovarious systems with nanoparticles, where the knowledge of specific heat is important; forexample formation of nanocomposite materials, the initial stages of formation of fogs, smogand clouds, etc.
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