Nonlinear size-dependent melting of the silica-encapsulated silver nanoparticles

In spite of the recent report of the in situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy observation of the melting of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) in Chen et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 253104 (2010)], no consistent experimental investigation coupled with theoretical analysis has been reported so far. We report the size-dependence of the melting temperature (T-m) of Ag NPs by both differential scanning calorimetry experiments and thermodynamic assessments. Thermodynamically calculated T-m for the Ag NPs showed a nonlinear function with respect to the inverse of the particle size and agreed well with the present and reported experimental results within an error of 1 K. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4712599]