For most cases of practical importance, liquid metal alloys occur as a single homogeneous

liquid phase. To simplify the present discussion, we shall treat a special casea pure metallic
element with only a single solid phase. Figure 14.1 is a schematic phase diagram of a
single-component system.
From what we have previously learned, we know that the solid is a crystalline phase
in which the atoms are aligned in space in definite patterns over long distances. The regularity
of crystal lattices makes it easy to study their structures with the aid of X-ray diffraction
and electron microscopy; therefore, a great deal is known about the internal
arrangements of atoms in metal crystals. At the same time, the uniformity of the structure
of crystals makes it possible to employ mathematics in the study of their properties. On the
other hand, the gas phase represents the other extreme from the solid phase where
the structure is one of almost complete randomness, or disorder, instead of almost complete
order. Here, in most cases, the atoms can be assumed to be removed far enough from
each other that metallic gases can be treated as ideal gases. The physical properties of
metallic gases, like those of metallic solids, are therefore capable of mathematical analysis.
While the solid crystalline phase is pictured as a completely ordered arrangement of
atoms (neglecting defects such as dislocations and vacancies) and the gas phase as a state
of random disorder (ideal gas), no simple picture has as yet been devised to represent the
structure of the liquid phase. The principal trouble is the difficulty of the problem. The
liquid phase possesses neither the long-range order of the solid nor the lack of interaction
between atoms characteristic of the gas phase. It is, therefore, essentially an indeterminant
structure. Actually, in a liquid, the average separation between atoms is very close to that
in the solid. This fact is shown by the small change in density on melting, which for closepacked
metals amounts to 2 to 6 percent only, where part of this density change is
probably associated with the formation of additional structural defects in the liquid phase.
A compilation of physical properties of pure metals at elevated temperatures and those of
liquid metals can be found in Reference 1. Further, the latent heat of fusion released