Size-dependence of surface thermodynamic functions of nano-Cu by dissolution kinetics

Abstract The surface thermodynamics of nanoparticle present an amazing difference compared with their corresponding bulk counterpart, and the difference depends on the size of nanoparticles. Herein, we obtained the size-dependence of surface thermodynamic functions of nanoparticles by dissolution kinetics. The theoretical relations between dissolution kinetic parameters as well as molar surface thermodynamic functions and particle size were derived, respectively. In experiment, taking the dissolution of nano-Cu particles as a system, the dissolution rate constant of nano-Cu with different sizes under different temperatures, the dissolution apparent activation energy and the dissolution pre-exponential factor of nano-Cu with different sizes were obtained, respectively. Finally, the regularities of influence of particle size on surface thermodynamic functions of nanoparticles were derived. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that with the size of nano-Cu decreasing, the molar surface Gibbs energy, the molar surface enthalpy and the molar surface entropy correspondingly increase, which are linearly related to the reciprocal of particle size.