1993 Volume 41 Issue 6 Pages 297-316
The application of the Knudsen cell-mass spectrometer technique to the thermodynamic studies of alloys and oxide melts which are called metallurgical slags is discussed in this review paper. Particular attention is paid to the development of such studies during the last twenty years.
In conducting mass spectrometric studies on the composition dependency of properties of mixtures, a sereies of measurements with the samples of different compositions are necessary, and in these measurements small changes in the instrumental sensitivity between experiments is unavoidable. Various methods have been developed in order to overcome this problem. Many alloy systems have been studied employing ion intensity ratio methods. Analytical expression of thermodynamic functions have enabled to compute the thermodynamic functions from the mass spectrometric data more accurately. The experimental technique of multi-Knudsen cell has been improved, and pulse-counting technique was used for the measurement of ion intensity. The determination of the thermodynamic properties of the alloys containing the components of very low vapor pressure were performed. There are many difficulties in conducting mass spectrometric studies with oxide melts, but some of such systems have been studied by applying various techniques. The phase boundaries of some alloy systems were determined using the data of activities or using another technique. A complete listing of the applications to date is presented.
