On the Conundrum of the Heat Capacityof Metallic Nanoclasters

Abstract

The heat capacity of nanoclusters was investigated using thermodynamics of surfaces, taking into account the surface enthalpy introduced by E. Guggenhein. It is shown that the cluster heat capacity Cp should be greater than the heat capacity C(b)p of the corresponding bulk phase. However, the (Cp - C(b)p)/ C(b)p ratio should not exceed 50% up to very small clusters containing 100 atoms. Theoretical estimations agree with molecular dynamics results. So, experimental data on metallic nanoclusters and nanostructures demonstrating that Cp exceeds C(b)p in 2-5 times should be incorrect.