Molecular dynamics investigation of the size dependence of the heat of melting of metal nanoclusters

The size dependences of the temperature and heat of melting of transition metal nanoclusters (Ni, Au, Cu, Ag) have been investigated using the isothermal molecular dynamics and tight-binding potential. It has been shown that the heat of melting Λ for nanoclusters approximately 1 nm in size should be two to three times less than the macroscopic heat of melting Λ(∞). It has been found that the heat of melting Λ decreases with a decrease in the size of nanoclusters and, in some approximation, depends linearly on their inverse radius R −1.