Analytical approach to determine the melting temperature variation in free standing metallic nanostructures

An analytical model has been presented to examine the dependence of the melting temperature on the size of nanosolids. The model takes into account the size, shape parameter, packing fraction based on crystalline structure, solid-liquid interfacial energy, and surface stress. The model is extended form of qualitative model used earlier to study the size dependent thermophysical properties in nanostructures. The impact of the solid-liquid interfacial energy to surface stress on melting temperature is included in the current approach since the size-dependent melting temperature is linearly proportional to this term. The model is used to study the melting temperature variation with the reduction in size of the free standing metallic nanosolids viz. Au, Ag, Al, Cu, Bi, Ni, Pb, β-Sn, Zn. The drop in melting temperature is noticed with the size reduction of the metallic nanostructure. For the nanomaterials under investigation, the model results are found to be consistent with the published experimental and simulated data.