An electron microscope study of evaporating small particles: the Kelvin equation for liquid lead and the mean surface energy of solid silver

Abstract
An electron microscope study of evaporating liquid lead particles, formed on carbon substrates by nucleation from the vapour, has led to a confirmation of the Kelvin equation which relates equilibrium vapour pressure to surface curvature. Observations of the same kind made on particles of evaporating solid silver have produced evaporation curves similar to those for lead. Interpretation of these curves in terms of the Kelvin equation for solids has yielded a value for the mean surface energy of silver of 1.20 ± 0.06 J m-2 (1200 ± 60 erg cm-2) at 1005 ± 25 K.