Studies of Liquid Mercury and Liquid Mercury-Gallium Systems by X-Ray Diffraction

Citation

Caputi, Roger William (1965) Studies of Liquid Mercury and Liquid Mercury-Gallium Systems by X-Ray Diffraction. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/HZ5D-3G89. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-09102002-145935

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the radial distribution of pure mercury and mercury-gallium mixtures by xray diffraction. Work was also done to resolve the problem of whether microdroplets of the solute metal existed in the solvent metal of the mercury-gallium system or whether the mercury-gallium mixtures were true solutions.

The experimental system used a reflection geometry from a horizontal free surface of the liquid metals. A silver x-ray tube was used in conjunction with a scintillation detector and pulse height analyzer. Data points were taken over an S range of approximately 1.6Å^-1 to 17Å^-1.

Three samples were run at 0°, 30° and 50° C. The compositions of the three samples were pure mercury, 0.9658 mole froction of mercury, and 0.0197 mole fraction of mercury.

The peak positions of the final radial distribution functions for all samples showed no significant change over the temperature range used. The average positions of the first and second peaks of the mercury curves were 3.01Å and 5.80Å respectively. The coordination numbers for mercury as determined by the symmetrical curve method were 7.5, 7.3, and 7.0 atoms for the 0°, 30° and 50° C runs respectively.

The final results indicated that both samples of mercury-gallium were true solutions.

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