I have an interesting discussion with some college friends today. It is about the difference of bulk and nanoparticle and its influence in material properties. Please, any idea or opinion with this topic. Thanks
The difference between the bulk material physical properties when its dimension is reduced might be very important. For instance the silver is very diamagnetic in bulk crystalline form, but if you reduce it to clusters of 13 or 14 atoms, then it is ferromagnetic. If you want to go deeper you can see:
Structure and static response of small silver clusters to an external electric field, Physical Review A 75(3), 033202,(2007).
Unexpected magnetism of small silver clusters, Physical Review A 75(6), 063204, (2007).
In both papers you can see with great accuracy the different electronic structure than a pure metal as the Ag can have with respect to its bulk when the size is reduced to nanometers.
I am agree with the other answers and additionally you have to take into account the anisotropy of the nanoparticles that is often different from the bulk material. The key difference is related to the size. In bulk material the physical properties are independent of its size but when yo go to nanometer scale it could be totally different and dependent on size and also shape.