The liquid-vapour phase transition in fluid mercury |
| |
Authors: | Friedrich Hensel |
| |
Institution: | Institute of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science Center, Philipps-University of Marburg , 35032, Marburg, Germany |
| |
Abstract: | The paper discusses recent experimental results in the liquid-vapour critical region of metals which show that the existence of the metal-non-metal transition noticeably influences the electronic, thermodynamic, structural and interfacial features of the fluid. The main emphasis is on surface-induced phenomena. Reflectivity experiments on mercury against an optically transparent sapphire window close to the vapour-liquid coexistence curve reveal clearly the existence of a prewetting transition of mercury on the sapphire substrate. The transition line, which terminates at high temperatures at a prewetting critical temperature T pwc lying below the bulk critical temperature T c and at low temperatures at the wetting transition temperature T w lies close to the bulk vapour-liquid coexistence curve. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|