I would like to know whether there are nay relationships between the work function of metal nanoparticles and their particle size.
The bigger the particles are, the lower the work functions are? or just the opposite？
Thank you so much.
work function is the energy required to detach an electron completely from a metal surface. hence work function highly depends on the surface properties and it has been reported to vary with the surface conditions of the same material. In easy terms to say, reducing the surface particle size increases the work function and vice versa. If you are eager to know the reason behind this, pls read this file...
Article Curvature-Induced Anomalous Enhancement in the Work Function...
In the article: Chemical Reviews, 2018, 118, 4981–5079. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00776, in Figure 2, the experimental results are given for the work function of gold clusters versus the clusters’ size. These results have been adapted from Ref. [15]:
[15]. Taylor K.J., Pettiette-Hall C.L., Cheshnovsky O., Smalley R.E., Ultraviolet photoelectron spectra of coinage metal clusters, J. Chem. Phys., 1992, 96, 3319–3329. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.461927
It is noted that for clusters with more than 70 atoms (the cluster diameter is more than 1.5 nm), the work function hardly fluctuates and monotonically approaches the work function of a solid (bulk gold).
For a quick estimate of the diameter of gold nanoparticles from the number of gold atoms in it, see Figure 4 (see upper abscissa) from the article: M.M. Alvarez et al, Optical absorption spectra of nanocrystal gold molecules, J. Phys. Chem. B 1997, 101, 3706-3712. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp962922n
Also, there was a paper:
L.K. Grigor’eva, N.S. Lidorenko, É.L. Nagaev, and S.P. Chizhik. Size dependence of the Fermi energy and of the interaction force between highly disperse particles.
Sov. Phys. JETP 64(3), p. 620 (September 1986); Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 91, 1050–1062 (September 1986).
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