SIZE DEPENDENT INTERFACE ENERGY - Energy Research Developments: Tidal Energy, Energy Efficiency and Solar Energy - page 191

Chapter 8
S IZE D EPENDENT I NTERFACE E NERGY
Q. Jiang ∗ and H.M. Lu
Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials (Jilin University),
Ministry of Education, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
Jilin University, Changchun, China
Abstract
As size of low dimensional materials decreases, which leads to dramatic increase of surface-
to-volume ratio, their properties are essentially controlled by related interface energetic terms,
such as interface energy and interface stress. Although such changes in behavior can be
dominant effects in nanoscale structures, we still have remarkably little experience or intuition
for the expected phenomena, especially the size dependent properties and their practical
implication, except for electronic systems. In this contribution, the classic thermodynamics as
a powerful traditional theoretical tool is used to model these energetic terms including
different bulk interface energies and the corresponding size dependences. Among the above
modeling a special emphasis on the size dependence of interface energy is carried out. The
predictions of the established models without free parameters are in agreement with the
experimental or other theoretical results of different kinds of low dimensional materials with
different chemical bond natures.
Introduction
Scope
In this review, we shall focus attention of classic thermodynamic aspects to model the
interface energy. For present purposes (and according to this author′s preference) the
examples have been divided according to those definitions based on the principle
phenomenon involved. This contribution comprises six sections. Section 1 is entitled
Introduction. After the introduction it concentrates on different interface energies and their
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