Liquid metals: Thermophysical properties of alloys from the Ga-Sn-Zn system

Liquid metals are a group of functional materials of growing importance in the recent years. In this work, the density, viscosity and surface tension of liquid Ga-Sn-Zn alloys for compositions with the Sn/Zn ratio of 3/1, 1/1 and 1/3 with Ga additions have been determined by the discharge crucible method. An attempt was done to describe the abovementioned properties as a function of temperature and composition. The new thermophysical property data were compared to the values predicted by models. The Moelwyn-Hughes, Kozlov-Romanov-Petrov, Sato, Schick and Gasior models for viscosity, and for density, the Brillo and Egry and ideal solution models were applied. The surface tension of binary liquid alloys was analysed in the framework of the Butler and Quasi Chemical Approximation for regular solution (QCA), while to describe the surface tension of ternary melts, the models of Butler, Toop, Kohler and Muggianu were used.