Specific heat and related thermophysical properties of liquid Fe-Cu-Mo alloy

The specific heat and related thermophysical properties of liquid Fe_77.5Cu₁₃Mo_9.5 monotectic alloy were investigated by an electromagnetic levitation drop calorimeter over a wide temperature range from 1482 to 1818 K. A maximum undercooling of 221 K (0.13 T _m) was achieved and the specific heat was determined as 44.71 J·mol⁻¹·K⁻¹. The excess specific heat, enthalpy change, entropy change and Gibbs free energy difference of this alloy were calculated on the basis of experimental results. It was found that the calculated results by traditional estimating methods can only describe the solidification process under low undercooling conditions. Only the experimental results can reflect the reality under high undercooling conditions. Meanwhile, the thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and sound speed were derived from the present experimental results. Furthermore, the solidified microstructural morphology was examined, which consists of (Fe) and (Cu) phases. The calculated interface energy was applied to exploring the correlation between competitive nucleation and solidification microstructure within monotectic alloy. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50121101 and 50395105) and the Doctorate Foundation of Northwestern Polytechnical University (Grant No. CX200420)