Electrical resistivity and viscosity of Pb–Sb alloys are measured to investigate Peierls distortion behavior in the melts. In Pb30Sb70, Pb20Sb80, and Pb10Sb90 melts, temperature dependence of resistivity deviates from linear dependence during cooling. At 663 °C, different trends in isothermal behavior between experimental and theoretical resistivities, are interpreted as the existence of Peierls distortion in Sb-rich melts. In Pb30Sb70 and Pb20Sb80 melts, abnormal viscosity results verify the existence of abnormal structure transition, which is attributed to the formation of large Sb clusters with Peierls distortion. In undercooled liquid Pb20Sb80, minute resistivity coefficient and quadratic resistivity behavior are interpreted as the rapid increase of cluster size of Sb clusters with Peierls distortion, which provides preferential nucleation sites for higher structure similarity to the crystalline and lower liquid–solid interfacial energy.
A nanocrystal model for liquid metals and amorphous metals has been developed. With the nanocrystal model, the broadening peak profiles （BPPs） of Cu, Al, Al65Cu20Fe15 alloy, Cu7oNi30 alloy and Fe50Si50 alloy were gained by broadening the X-ray diffraction （XRD） peaks of a crystal lattice. By comparing the BPPs with the XRD intensity curves measured on the liquid metals, it is found that the BPPs are closely in agreement with the XRD intensity curves, respectively, except the FesoSiso alloy. Therefore, the nanocrystal model can be used to determine if the atomic cluster structure of the liquid metal is similar to the structure of its crystal lattice.
X.L. Tian, C.W. Zhan, J.X. Hou, X.C. Chen and J.J. Sun Key Laboratory of Liquid Structure and Heredity of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
