Development of a thermodynamical approach for the prediction of the bulk modulus of spherical cubic silicon carbide (β−SiC) nanosolids

A direct thermodynamical model is developed, aiming at predicting the mechanical properties (i.e. bulk modulus, B_T) of spherical SiC nanoparticles (NPs), as a function of both temperature and pressure that were varied within 273 − 1673 K and 0 − 70 GPa, respectively. The bulk modulus was found to decrease with respect to the size of the SiC NPs and was thus inversely proportional to their surface to volume ratio. On the other hand, B_T was found to decrease as the temperature increased from its bulk value of 226.9 GPa at 273 K to 222.65 GPa at 1673 K. Conversely, the bulk modulus has been found to increase from 226.9 GPa at 0 GPa–513.9 GPa at 70 GPa. These findings highlight clearly a size dependency correlation of the bulk modulus values.