The melting of small particles of lead and indium

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out on the melting of particles of lead and indium in the size range 3 to 50 nm. Electron diffraction patterns were used to determine melting points and electron micrographs were used to determine the size of the particles. The melting points were found to decrease with diminishing size in both cases; in the case of lead the melting point was depressed by about 200K for particles of 3nm radius.