PARTICLE-SIZE EFFECTS IN EMBEDDED-ATOM APPROXIMATION ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF NI, PD, CU, AG, AND AU

Shell-like particles of Ni, Pd, Cu, Ag, and An have been studied. Base d on the embedded atom approximation of the total energy, analytical f ormulae have been derived for the particle size dependence of the cohe sive energy, the surface energy, and the isotropic surface stress. The agreement with numerical results is very well for particles with more than 10 atoms. A comparison with similar results of van der Waals par ticles and with particles of ion pairs suggests, that the form of the derived expressions is mainly determined by geometrical factors of the particles, but the values of the coefficients strongly depend on the specific interactions inside the particle.