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arXiv · cond-mat/0009027

Phase behavior and material properties of hollow nanoparticles

U. S. Schwarz·S. A. Safran
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Abstract

Effective pair potentials for hollow nanoparticles like the ones made from carbon (fullerenes) or metal dichalcogenides (inorganic fullerenes) consist of a hard core repulsion and a deep, but short-ranged, van der Waals attraction. We investigate them for single- and multi-walled nanoparticles and show that in both cases, in the limit of large radii the interaction range scales inversely with the radius, $R$, while the well depth scales linearly with $R$. We predict the values of the radius $R$ and the wall thickness $h$ at which the gas-liquid coexistence disappears from the phase diagram. We also discuss unusual material properties of the solid, which include a large heat of sublimation and a small surface energy.

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U. S. Schwarz, S. A. Safran. 2000-09-02. Phase behavior and material properties of hollow nanoparticles. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.62.6957

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