Surface Tension and Surface Energy of Nanomaterials

摘要

A method used to accurately estimate the surface tension of nanoparticles was provided. The predicted surface tension of nanoparticles followed an inverse proportional relationship with the nanosize, being size-dependent. The results were consistent well with the experimental data. Surface tension along lattice planes could be deal in this method by considering the parameters of crystal structure. Surface energy of nanoparticles is also investigated in this work. The results indicated that the surface energy of Au nanoparticle has greatly increased when the particle radius was less than 5 nm, resulting in high activities on the surface of nanomaterials. Systematically analyzing the experimental data of surface tension and atomic bond energy, we found that they follow an approximately linear relationship.