Capturing the properties of very hot compounds

MIT researchers demonstrate a new electrochemical method to study thermodynamic processes in an ultra-high temperature molten oxide.

The thermodynamic properties of compounds such as aluminum oxide, which are known as refractory materials because they melt at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,632 Fahrenheit), have been difficult to study because few vessels can withstand the heat to contain them, and those that do often react with the melt and contaminate it.

Now MIT researchers are showcasing a container-less electrochemical method to study the thermodynamic properties of these hot melts in a paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.

“We have a new technique which demonstrates that the rules of electrochemistry are followed for these refractory melts,” says senior author Antoine Allanore, an associate professor of metallurgy. “We have now evidence that these melts are very stable at high temperature, they have high conductivity.”

Read more at MIT

Image Credit: Melody M. Wang

-jk-