Sharif Digital Repository

An analytical model based on cohesive energy has been conducted to study the effects of edge, corner, and inward surface relaxation as varying parameters on melting temperature of nanoparticles. It is shown that taking into account the edge and corner (EC) atoms of nanoparticle, causes to drop melting temperature more, when compared to consider them the same as only surface atoms. This reduction is significant especially when the size of nanoparticle is below 10 nm. The results are supported by available experimental results of tin, lead and gold melting temperature (Tm). Finally, it is shown that inward relaxation increases melting temperature slightly  

An analytical model is proposed to study the effect of particle size on melting enthalpy and entropy of metallic nanoparticles (NPs). The Mott's and Regel's equations for melting entropy in the combination of core average coordination number (CAC) and surface average coordination number (SAC) of freestanding NPs are considered. Clusters of icosahedral (IC), body centered cubic (BCC), and body centered tetragonal (BCT) structure without any vacancies and defects are modeled. Using the variable coordination number made this model to be in good agreement with experimental and molecular dynamic (MD) results of different crystal structures. The model predicts melting entropy and enthalpy of... 

A green precipitation method has been used for the synthesis of ultra-small APTMS-mPEG conjugated Mn3O4 nanoparticles. Spherical cores in the uniform size of 4±1 nm were characterized by HRTEM. Zeta potential of −45 mV and the invariant turbidimetry results during the time, confirmed super-stability of the colloids. MRI relaxometry by 1.5 T scanner represented two values of r1= 8.23 s−1mM−1 and r1=7.3 s−1mM−1 for diluted and concentrated samples. The r2/r1 ratio was also decreased from 11.86 to 6.9 by dilution of colloids. Particle aggregation and motional narrowing phenomena led to a dual T1/T2 contrast agent in the Mn ion concentrations of more than 0.2 mM. The optimum concentration of Mn... 

Synthesis of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) coated ultrasmall Gd2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) with enhanced T1-weighted signal intensity and r2/r1 ratio close to unity is performed by a microwave-assisted polyol process. PVP coated Gd2O3NPs with spherical shape and uniform size of 2.5 ± 0.5 nm have been synthesized below 5 min and structure and morphology confirmed by HRTEM, XRD and FTIR. The longitudinal (r1) and transversal relaxation (r2) of Gd2O3NPs is measured by a 3 T MRI scanner. The results showed considerable increasing of relaxivity for Gd2O3NPs in...