Self and Chemical Diffusion in Liquid Al-Ag

Abstract

Self-and chemical diffusion coefficients are reported for molten Al-Ag on the Al-rich side of the phase diagram for Ag concentrations of up to 45at% and for pure liquid Ag. Temperature dependent Ag self-diffusion coefficients were obtained using quasi-elastic neutron scattering. Chemical diffusion coefficients were measured in situ by means of X-ray radiography of a long-capillary furnace. A detailed error analysis for the long-capillary experiments is reported. It is shown that perturbing effects can be detected and that accurate chemical diffusion coefficients can be measured with high precision. It is demonstrated based on Al-Ag20at% that the Darken equation appears to be valid for this system with a thermodynamic factor lower than unity. Furthermore, in Al-Ag it appears that Ag self-diffusion for small Ag concentrations is faster than Al-self-diffusion in liquid Al. This contrasts with observations made for other Al-based melts like Al-Ni and Al-Cu.