Thermodynamic properties and microscopic structure of liquid Cd–Na alloys by estimating complex concentration in a regular associated solution

Abstract

The thermodynamic and microscopic structure of Cd – Na liquid alloy at 673 K has been studied by using regular associated solution model. This model has been utilized to determine the concentration of the complexes Cd 2 Na in Cd – Na alloys in molten state at 673 K. The concentration of the complexes is then used to find free energy of mixing, heat of mixing, entropy of mixing, activity, concentration fluctuations in long wavelength limit S cc (0) and the Warren Cowley short-range parameter α 1. The analysis suggests that this alloy is of a weakly interacting nature. The theoretical analysis reveals that the pairwise interaction energies between the species depend considerably on temperature and the alloy is more ordered in Cd-rich region. The alloy behaves like a segregating system in Na-rich region. The observed asymmetry in the properties of mixing of Cd – Na alloy in molten state is successfully explained by assuming Cd 2 Na complex on the basis of regular associated solution model.