Structural Study of Liquid Na–Pb Alloys by Neutron Diffraction

Abstract

Neutron diffraction measurements of liquid Na–Pb alloys have been carried out to reveal the short range order in the liquid state. In the Na-rich region, an additional small peak has been clearly observed in the low Q side of the main peak of the structure factors and this implies the formation of a local atomic association like molecular cluster such as Na₄Pb in this alloy system. The structure factor of this system was calculated by the formula of three component hard-sphere system, assuming to be a mixture of Na, Pb and Na₄Pb. The calculated total structure factors appear to agree well with the observed ones.