Surface Energies of Metals in Both Liquid And Solid States

Although during the last years one has seen a number of systematic studies of the surface energies of metals, the aim and the scientific meaning of this research is to establish a simple and a straightforward theoretical model to calculate accurately the mechanical and the thermodynamic properties of metal surfaces due to their important application in materials processes and in the understanding of a wide range of surface phenomena. Through extensive theoretical calculations of the surface tension of most of the liquid metals, we found that the fraction of broken bonds in liquid metals (f) is constant which is equal to 0.287. Using the estimated f value, the surface tension (m), surface energy (SV), surface excess entropy (-d/dT), surface excess enthalpy (Hs), coefficient of thermal expansion (αm and αb), sound velocity (cm) and its temperature coefficient (-dc/dT) have been calculated for more than sixty metals. The results of the calculated quantities agree well with available experimental data.