Abstract
A systematic measurement has been made of the magnetic susceptibility of liquid Hg alloys (Hg–Zn, Hg–Cd, Hg–In, Hg–Tl, Hg–Sn, Hg–Pb and Hg–Bi). The accuracy of the experiment is estimated at about 0.6×10−6 cm3/mol. The experimental value of liquid mercury has much larger diamagnetic susceptibility than that expected from a free electron model. Such a diamagnetic contribution can be attributed to the effect of the high-lying d-states of Hg. For Hg alloys, their magnetic susceptibility is observed to approach the free electron value with increasing solute concentration. This trend may imply that the d-states overlapping with the conduction band in pure Hg go down with increasing concentration of an alloying element.
