Thermodynamic properties of liquid metals

Abstract

Some of the more important thermodynamic properties of liquid metals are their vapour pressures, heat capacities and their rates of transmission of shock waves (sound velocities). Thus changes in the vapour pressure of liquid metals are related to changes in the cohesive or binding energy of the liquid with temperature. No theoretical approaches have yet been successful in predicting values of heat capacities, owing to the extremely complex motion of atoms in the liquid state. Experimental measurements at constant pressure ( C p) are therefore essential. Measurements of the sound velocity, which is thermodynamically related to the isentropic compressibility κ and to C p/ C v, alow such properties to be measured. A review of values of U s, C p and P v for a wide range of pure liquid metals, together with the underlying thermodynamic relations, are briefly reported in this paper.