https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00148-y
Solid solubility in isolated nanometer-sized alloy particles in the Sn-Pb system
Research Center for Ultra High Voltage Electron Microscopy,
Osaka University, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Corresponding author: a jg-lee@uhvem.osaka-u.ac.jp
Received:
6
September
2004
Published online:
13
July
2005
The finite size effect on both the solid solubility and the thermal
expansion coefficient in nanometer-sized lead particles was examined by
in-situ transmission electron microscopy. The solid solubility of tin in
approximately 12-nm-sized particles of lead at room temperature was
evaluated be higher than 30 atomic percent, which is almost ten times higher
than that in the corresponding bulk lead. The thermal expansion coefficient
of lead increased from 
K-1 for bulk to 
K-1 when the size of particles decreased from 
(bulk) to 16 nanometers. The increment of the thermal expansion coefficient
with decreasing size of particles suggests the reduction of the cohesive
energy and therefore the reduction of the elastic modulus with decreasing
size of particles. It is then considered that the suppression of the strain
energy in the solid solution may be responsible for the enhanced solid
solubility in nanometer-sized alloy particles.
PACS: 61.46.+w – Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals / 64.75.+g – Solubility, segregation, and mixing; phase separation
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2005
