Structural studies of expanded fluid mercury

Abstract

The energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements for expanded fluid Hg have been carried out in the density region from 13.55 to 6.8 g cm −3 including the metal-non-metal transition region. It was found that the volume expansion of liquid Hg in the metallic region is not accompanied by a uniform increase of interatomic distance, r 1, but is mainly caused by a decrease of coordination number, N 1. When the transition region is approached, the rate of decrease of N 1,becomes small and r 1 starts to elongate.