Melting temperature depression due to the electronic spin transition of iron

The electronic spin transition of iron has been shown to strongly affect many thermoelastic properties of the host mineral. However, the response of melting temperatures to the spin transition remains largely unexplored. Here, we study the melting of lower mantle minerals, ferropericlase and bridgmanite, using Lindemann's Law. This empirical law predicts a negligible melting temperature depression for Earth-relevant bridgmanite but a substantial depression for Earth-relevant ferropericlase across the spin transition of iron, consistent with extant experimental results. This melting depression can be explained within the framework of Lindemann's Law for a Debye-like solid. The transition of iron from high- to low-spin configuration reduces the molar volume and the bulk modulus of the crystal, leading to a decrease in Debye frequency and consequently lowering the melting temperature. Thermodynamically, the melting depression likely derives from a more negative Margules parameter for a liquid mixture of high- and low-spin end-members as compared to that of a solid mixture. This melting depression across the spin transition of iron may be the process responsible for the formation of a deep molten layer during the crystallization of a magma ocean in the past, and a reduced viscosity layer at present.

Synthesis and thermodynamics of Ag–Cu nanoparticles

A melting temperature depression of around 14 °C for Ag–Cu nanoparticles synthesized by a chemical reduction method has been experimentally measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

MODELING THE MELTING TEMPERATURE OF METALLIC NANOWIRES

A model is developed to account for the size-dependent melting temperature of pure metallic and bimetallic nanowires, where the effects of the contributions of all surface atoms to the surface area, lattice and surface packing factors and the cross-sectional shape of the nanowires are considered. As the size decreases, the melting temperature functions of pure metallic and bimetallic nanowires decrease almost with the same size-dependent trend. Due to the inclusion of the above effects, the present model can also be applied to investigate the melting temperature depression rate of different low-dimensional system, accurately. The validity of the model is verified by the data of experiments and molecular dynamics simulations.