Nano Express
Size-Dependent Materials Properties Toward a Universal Equation
UCL, Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering, 2 Place Sainte Barbe, 1348, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
Nanoscale Research Letters 2010, 5:1132-1136 doi:10.1007/s11671-010-9614-1
Published: 4 May 2010Abstract
Due to the lack of experimental values concerning some material properties at the nanoscale, it is interesting to evaluate this theoretically. Through a “top–down” approach, a universal equation is developed here which is particularly helpful when experiments are difficult to lead on a specific material property. It only requires the knowledge of the surface area to volume ratio of the nanomaterial, its size as well as the statistic (Fermi–Dirac or Bose–Einstein) followed by the particles involved in the considered material property. Comparison between different existing theoretical models and the proposed equation is done.
