Physical Measurements on Liquid Lithium Alloys

Abstract

During the last seven years we have carried out a number of physical measurements on the following series of liquid alloys systems: Li-Na, Li-Mg, Li-Cd, Li-In, Li-Pb and Li-Sn. The thermodynamic properties of these alloys systems change systematically and drastically in the order given above: Li-Na has a large miscibility gap accompanied by strong critical fluctuations at the consolute point, whereas in Li-Sn there is a strong tendency to compound formation. Electron transfer from the Li atoms to the Sn atoms takes place and gives rise to strong Coulomb attractions between the two kinds of ions. As a consequence, at compositions close to Li₄Sn, diffusive motion of the conduction electrons occurs, which can be considered as the first stage of a Mott-Anderson transition.