A sliding cell technique for diffusion measurements in liquid metals

The long capillary and shear cell techniques are the usual methods for diffusion measurements in liquid metals. Here we present a new “sliding cell technique” to measure interdiffusion in liquid alloys, which combines the merits of these two methods. Instead of a number of shear cells, as used in the shear cell method, only one sliding cell is designed to separate and join the liquid diffusion samples. Using the sliding cell technique, the influence of the heating process (which affects liquid diffusion measurements in the conventional long capillary method) can be eliminated. Time-dependent diffusion measurements at the same isothermal temperature were carried out in Al-Cu liquids. Compared with the previous results measured by in-situ X-ray radiography, the obtained liquid diffusion coefficient in this work is believed to be influenced by convective flow. The present work further supports the idea that to obtain accurate diffusion constants in liquid metals, the measurement conditions must be well controlled, and there should be no temperature gradients or other disturbances.