The concepts of nonextensive thermodynamics introduced in previous work can be used to show that depression or elevation of melting points for a nanosolid (nanoparticles, nanowires, films, and embedded particles) depends on the nanoparticle size according to power laws whose significance can be specified. The Gibbs-Thompson relation seems to be a particular case of these relations. This approach is based on a thermodynamic description involving the introduction of an extensity $\chi$ into the internal energy expression. $\chi$ is an Euler function of the particle mass with a homogeneity degree $m$, which can be other than 1; $m$ is the thermodynamic dimension of the system. Here, we show how various behaviors of nanosolids published in the literature can be analyzed according to this theory.

• Received 22 February 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.045428