Thickness of the surface layer, surface energy and atomic volume of the element

Abstract

The thickness of the surface layer of an atomically pure metal, which turned out to be equal to 5-6 nm, was calculated in this work. It is shown that the thickness of the surface layer is determined by one parameter – the atomic volume of a chemical element. A simple relationship between the surface energy of a metal and its melting point is obtained. All the relationships obtained are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords

• surface layer
• nanostructure
• surface energy
• atomic volume
• size effect