Phase diagrams, preparation

Example 1.15 Binary liquid mixture phase diagrams Prepare phase diagrams for acetone(l)-water(2) mixture using Raoult s law ... 

Alloys. Many Ge alloys have been prepared and studied. Most have been made by melting Ge with another metal, much as germanides are made. Collections of binary phase diagrams and comments about many Ge alloys are available (25—28). 

Fig. 13. Phase diagram showing the composition pathway traveled by a casting solution during the preparation of porous membranes by solvent evaporation. A, initial casting solution B, point of precipitation and C, point of soHdification. See text.

Attachment of a hot or cold stage to the ordinary microscope stage allows the specimen to be observed while the temperature is changed slowly, rapidly, or held constant somewhere other than ambient. This technique is used to determine melting and freezing points, but is especially useful for the study of polymorphs, the determination of eutectics, and the preparation of phase diagrams. 

The micrographs in Fig. 7.88 show clearly how from a knowledge of the AG -concentration diagrams it is possible to select the exact reaction conditions for the production of tailor-made outermost surface phase layers of the most desired composition and thus of the optimum physical and chemical properties for a given system. In addition it shows that according to thermodynamics, there can be predictable differences in the composition of the same outermost phase layer prepared at the same conditions of temperature but under slightly different vapour pressures. 

Although fractional crystallization has always been the most common method for the separation of diastereomers. When it can be used, binary-phase diagrams for the diastereomeric salts have been used to calculate the efficiency of optical resolution. However, its tediousness and the fact that it is limited to solids prompted a search for other methods. Fractional distillation has given only limited separation, but gas chromatography and preparative liquid chromatography have proved more useful and, in many cases, have supplanted fraetional crystallization, especially where the quantities to be resolved are small. 

Binary phase diagrams indicate that the rare-earth dodecaborides do not melt congruently . Owing to the difficulty in preparation of single-phase and single-crystal dodecaborides, little information is available on their physical properties. 

Intermetallic compounds are generally prepared by simply heating the elements in the correct molar proportion at or just below the liquidus temperature specified in the phase diagram. The major experimental problems associated with these methods are first, attack of the container material by the alkali metal or the intermetallic compound in the molten state second, the temperature chosen must be such as to attain true homogeneity of the intermetallic compound. 

Numerous compounds are observed in the Li-Ag phase diagram. The alloys are heated under Ar and cast in mild steel crucibles for metallographic examination, with homogeneity achieved by remelting under vacuum. Similar procedures were employed in an earlier study, except that H2 was used in place of Ar. An Ar cover gas was also employed to prepare the brasslike yj phase in the Li-Ag system for structural study. The silver and lithium were melted together in an iron crucible for 15-30 s before cooling without quenching to minimize the loss of lithium-. ... 

Sodium-zinc alloys for phase diagram determination are prepared by melting the elements in glass tubes under H2- Samples of NaZujj are prepared by heating zinc for several hours above the melting point of NaZn,3 (557°C) with xs Na in alundum extraction thimbles with N2 or Ar in a steel bomb scaled with copper gaskets. Excess Na was removed by extraction with liq NHj. Both KZn,3 and KCd,2 were prepared in this manner. ... 

The Sr-Cu system has been critically assessed. The most recent phase diagram, determined by combining differential thermal analysis and x-ray diffraction techniques, contains two intermediate compounds, both of which form in peritectic reactions, SrCu (588°C) and SrCu, (845°C) SrCu has also been prepared for independent structural analysis-. ... 

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