Thermodynamic Properties of Rare Earth Metal Alloys

Abstract

Heats of formation of solid and liquid binary and ternary alloys have been determined recently by calormetric methods. The alloys studied include Cu, Al, Mg and Sn with various rare earths such as La, Ce. Gd, Dy and Er. Most of the alloys investigated show strong compound forming tendencies and therefore the existence of chemical short range order in the liquid state. Some of the alloys investigated exhibit unusual concentration and temperature dependencies of the partial and integral thermodynamic properties obtained. It will be shown that a combination of experimental investigation with appropriate thermodynamic modelling is an efficient way to determine the thermodynamic properties in the stable and mctastable states as a function of concentration and temperature.