Evolution of Pores in Nanoshells — a Competition of Direct and Inverse Kirkendall Effects, Frenkel and Gibbs–Thomson Effects: the Phenomenological Description and Computer Simulation

The review consists of analysis of causes, driving forces, and mechanisms of formation and shrinkage of pores within the nanoparticles with a closed geometry. Taking into account the effects analysed within the scope of quasistationary approximation, several phenomenological models are proposed to describe the solid-solutions’ and intermetallic-compounds’ nanoshells’ evolution. A three-dimensional Monte-Carlo model, which allows simulating competition of such effects at the atomic level, in particular, segregation and its effect on the stability of hollow nanoshells, as well as the impact of both the temperature and the particle size on the pore formation, is suggested. Both approaches allow to consider the stages of formation and shrinking as separate ones or as ‘one and indivisible life-cycle’.