Abstract
The dissolution process of gold and silver wires in liquid sodium was observed as an example of a system in which there is a high density difference between solvent and solute. The solidification sequence of the alloys formed by the dissolution process was also observed. Sodium is very difficult to analyse metallographically, using optical microscopy or electron beam techniques, due to the high reactivity of sodium with the water vapour present in the air. In this work, a method was evolved for observing the behaviour of liquid sodium, when used as a solvent in dissolution experiments, utilizing X-radiography. Sample cans were irradiated with a beam of X-rays and the transmitted beam fell on a fluorescent screen image intensifier. This was either viewed directly using a closed-circuit TV system or recorded using video recording equipment. In the future it is hoped to extend this work to other light-heavy metal systems such as the Al-Cu alloys.
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