A convenient method to determine the bulk modulus of nanowires and its temperature dependence based on X-ray diffraction measurement

The bulk modulus of nanowires (NWs) and its temperature dependence were determined by a simple and convenient method based on temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. It was found that the bulk moduli for Ni, Cu, and Ag NWs were much higher than that for their counterpart bulk materials in the temperature range from 25 °C to 800 °C and the influence of temperature on the bulk modulus for NWs was stronger than that for their counterpart bulk materials. A surface bond contraction model and the force–interatomic-distance curves were introduced to explain the experimental results.