What is it about?
The structure of liquid alumina at a temperature ~2400 K near its melting point was measured using neutron and high-energy x-ray diffraction by employing containerless aerodynamic–levitation and laser-heating techniques. The results were interpreted using a structural model in accord with the experimental results.
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Why is it important?
Alumina is an essential component in geologically relevant aluminosilictes and finds applications in, e.g., cements, ceramics and abrasives. A key problem, however, when investigating the liquid is finding a container that can withstand high temperatures without reacting with the melt. In this work, the problem is circumvented by employing containerless aerodynamic–levitation and laser-heating techniques. The results give key information on the structure of liquid alumina near the melting point, which includes the nature of the structural motifs and their connectivity.
Perspectives
It was great to be able to extract a wealth of structural information for this important but experimentally challenging liquid.
Professor Philip S Salmon
University of Bath
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Joint diffraction and modeling approach to the structure of liquid alumina, Physical Review B, January 2013, American Physical Society (APS),
DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.87.024201.
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