Quantum Effect on Properties of Nanomaterials

Abstract

The physical properties of the material significantly depend on their size when reduced to nanodimension. In bulk system, most of the atoms are the interior atoms, so the properties of the materials are determined by them. But in the case of nanoparticles, the fraction of surface atoms cannot be neglected. To illustrate the increasing contribution of surface atoms, let us consider the following example of spherical nanoparticle having radius “r.” Thus surface-(S)-to-volume (V) ratio (S/V) = 3/r for such nanoparticle dramatically increases as its size is reduced Since surface atoms have different environment in contrast to interior atoms, their behaviors to any external excitation are completely different. The size effect becomes prominent when their size is ~5–50 nm.