CORRESPONDING STATES LAW FOR SIZE DEPENDENCE OF MELTING TEMPERATURE

Size dependence of the nanocluster melting temperature Tm has been analyzed using some similarity considerations and generalized Thomson’s formula Tm=Tm(∞)(1-α/R) where R is the particle radius, Tm(∞) is the macroscopic melting temperature and α is a parameter having the dimension of length and being the reduction parameter for R. Using Thomson’s formula and extrapolation to Tm=0K, the parameter α was calculated for nanoclusters of several metals with different types of lattice. It has been found that in most cases this parameter is close in magnitude to the first coordination sphere radius.