Larin V. Wetting, surface energy and liquid ? crystal phase transitions in single- and double-component condensed films

Research object: island films of metals and binary alloys on their basis (size range of particles from several till hundreds of nanometers); аim: to solve a problem of common rules determination of liquid – crystal phase transitions in highly dispersed single- and two-component condensed films and their connection with size effect, as well as with surface phenomena at the boundary between solid and liquid phase; methods: oil-free vacuum preparation of films (vacuum 10-6–10-7 Pa), transmission electron microscopy, high energy electron and X-Ray diffraction, micro analysis, photometric analysis; results, novelty: the dissertation is devoted to solving the problem of establishing general rules for liquid – crystal transitions in single- (In, Sn, Ві, Рb, Ag, Аu, Сu, Fе, Со, Ni, Pt) and double-component (Ві–РЬ end Ві–Sb) metallic systems and their relation to size effect as well as surface phenomena at the solid-liquid interface. The rule of corresponding states is shown to hold under melting and crystallization of nanoparticles. The limiting relative supercooling under crystallization is found to be 40% of the corresponding transition temperature. Temperature-content phase diagrams for binary films are constructed and their evolution on the characteristic size decreasing is followed. Wetting in nanoparticle-substrate systems of various types is studied and shown to possess size effect. It manifests itself in the dependence of wetting angle on nanoparticle size (In/C, Sn/C, Pb/C, Si, Bi/C, Au/C) and film-substrate thickness (In/C, Sn/C, Pb/C). The results are systematized with respect to nanoparticle surface energy of metals under study (In, Sn, Bi, Pb, Al, Au, Pt), their size (Au, Pb) and temperature dependency; the field of implementation: solid sate physics