Effect of stress on melting and freezing in nanopores.

A thermodynamic treatment of the freezing of fluids confined to nanosized closed pores is presented. The model includes the effects of pressure in the liquid, the volume change on solidification, and the strain energy in both the solidifying material and the wall material. When applied to the system of Pb droplets in Al, the model predicts an elevation of the melting point, in agreement with experiment.