The nature of the ordering of atoms in a melt and the surface properties of simple eutectic systems

Abstract

Using the models reconstructed from the experimental structure factor curves by the reverse Monte-Carlo and Voronoy-Delaunay methods the local atomic structures of the Sn-Ge, Ag-Ge, and Ni-C simple eutectic systems has been analyzed. It has been found that the nature of the atom ordering in melts is responsible not only for the melt bulk properties, but for its surface properties (surface tension, wetting) as well. Clusters that form from atoms of the same sort in melts and whose binding energy inside the clusters exceeds the binding energy between the atoms of a solvent and a cluster, exhibit the surface activity in the melt, which explains the extremes in isotherms of the density and surface tension of the melts. Clusters with a chemical ordering of atoms patterned after the Me3C electronic compound revealed in the Ni-C and Ag-Ge systems indicate that the equilibrium phase diagrams of these systems at high pressures transform from diagrams of a simple eutectic type to diagrams with a compound, i.e. an increase in pressure contributes to the metallization of bonds in a melt.