Nanomaterials and Their Properties
Week 6 Assignment 6 Solution
1. Gibbs free energy versus composition curve is linear in nature in case of
A. Mechanical mixture
B. Solid solution
C. Compound
D. All of these
Ans.: In case of mechanical mixture one component does not mix atomistically in the other
such as in sand-salt mixture.
2. The …………………………… is responsible for a drastic change in free energy of
solid solution at relatively high temperature.
A. Decrease in entropy
B. Increase in entropy
C. Increase in enthalpy
D. Decrease in temperature
Ans.:
Gibbs Free Energy, G = H – TS
Now, G = H - TS
Therefore, increase in S causes a large drop in free energy.
3. Tangent to the G vs. X curve provides us
A. Enthalpy
B. Internal energy
C. Entropy
D. Chemical potential
4. Why are nanomaterials thermodynamically unstable in their initial state of synthesis?
A. Reduced Gibbs energy
B. Increased internal stress
C. Large surface energy
D. Less surface energy
Ans.: Nanomaterials, especially during synthesis, have a high surface area to volume ratio.
This leads to a large surface energy, which destabilizes the system. The system tries to
minimize this surface energy by undergoing processes like agglomeration, phase transitions,
or surface reconstruction, ultimately leading to a more stable state.
5. Which of the following is a consequence of increased surface energy in
nanomaterials?
A. Reduced catalytic activity
B. Increased thermodynamic stability
C. Enhanced agglomeration
D. Decreased reactivity
Ans.: Increased surface energy means more atoms are at the surface with broken bonds, making
them more reactive and prone to interact with other particles. This leads to agglomeration,
where nanoparticles clump together to reduce their overall surface energy.
6. What is the physical meaning of chemical potential?
A. This is the potential which is used to maintain the equilibrium between the interface
of two phases
B. For any thermodynamic system, it is the amount of energy absorbed or released per
unit mole to maintain equilibrium
C. It is the change in Gibbs free energy per unit mole at constant temperature, pressure
and mole fractions of other components.
D. All of these
7. Phase diagram of alloys in nano scale depends on
A. the size of the particle
B. the shape of the particles
C. both shape and size of the particles
D. none of these
8. Decreasing the size of nano particles influences
A. Melting temperature of nanomaterial
B. Composition of nanomaterial
C. Both A and B
D. None of these
9. State True or False
Surface Gibbs free energy is a function of grain boundary thickness and composition
A. True
B. False
Ans.: The expression for surface Gibbs free energy is given by
2𝛾𝑉𝑎𝑡 𝐶
𝐺 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 = 𝑟
………………………………(1)
Where, 𝛾 is the interface energy
𝑉𝑎𝑡 is the atomic volume 𝐶 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑜 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒
r is the radius of the nano particle
Again,
𝛾 = 𝛾𝑜 − 𝑅𝑇𝛿𝜌𝑋𝐴𝐺𝐵 ln(𝑋𝐴𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 )………………………………(2)
Where, 𝛿 is the thickness of grain boundary
𝜌 is the density of grain boundary
𝑋𝐴𝐺𝐵 is the grain boundary composition of metal A in AB alloy
𝑋𝐴𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 is the bulk composition of metal A
10. State the following statement is True or False.
Nanocrystalline material has a strong tendency to increase the grain size because grain
boundaries in nanocrystalline materials are in a highly unrelaxed state, thereby in a high
energy state. Therefore, grains have tendency to grow for reducing the total energy.
A. True
B. False