Solubilities and Solution Chemistryin Liquid Alkali Metals

Summary.  Experimental solubility data for metals and non-metallic substances in liquid alkali metals have been collected from literature, critically evaluated, and selected for recommendation. Sometimes results for a selected system at a selected temperature vary over more than an order of magnitude. This is not uniquely connected with a poor precision of the measurements. Some impurities may spectacularly modify the solubilities and, moreover, definition of a saturating solute phase is not always a simple task. Based on supplementary experiments one may explain several phenomena which often accompany dissolution processes. These accompanying processes are essentially the same as those frequently observed in solution chemistry. Received February 3, 2000. Accepted (revised) May 8, 2000