Surface tension of metallic glass forming liquid nanoparticles

We report the surface tension gamma of Cu64Zr36 metallic glass liquid nanoparticles calculated using molecular dynamics simulation. We carried out a systematic investigation to obtain the dependence of gamma on particle size and temperature. The values of gamma are between 0.85 and 1.25 N/m, with a negative coefficient of temperature dependence that covers both the liquid and (amorphous) solid state. The particle size dependence is extracted through the Tolman length delta, which takes the values between 0.53 and 0.83 angstrom. The surface tension is influenced by temperature, sphere size, and surface chemical segregation.