Structural analysis of liquid aluminum at high pressure and high temperature using the hard sphere model

Abstract

The structure of liquid aluminum is measured up to 6.9 GPa and 1773 K using a multi-angle energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction method in a Paris-Edinburgh press. The effect of pressure and temperature on the structure and density of liquid aluminum is analyzed by means of the hard sphere model. Peak positions in the structure factor of liquid aluminum show a nearly constant value with varying temperatures at ∼1–2 GPa and slightly change with varying pressures up to 6.9 GPa at 1173–1773 K. In contrast, the height of the first peak in the structure factor significantly changes with varying pressures and temperatures. Hard sphere model analysis shows that the structure of liquid aluminum in the pressure-temperature range of this study is controlled mostly by the packing fraction with only a minor change in hard sphere diameters. The obtained packing fractions and hard sphere diameters are used to calculate densities of liquid aluminum at high pressure-temperature conditions.