The stability of metal particles and particle-plate interactions in liquid metals

The stability of colloidal metal particles in liquid metals has been examined using the classical methods of aqueous colloid chemistry. The standard techniques for calculating Van-der-Waals' attractive potentials have been applied to a liquid metal environment. Also a repulsive potential expression has been derived, for two metal plates in a liquid metal, using the concept of the contact potential between the solid and liquid metal and assuming semi-classical free electron screening in the fluid phase. The total interaction energy has been calculated for a metal sphere and plate (Fe in liquid Na). The potential energy curves with separation distance, derived from the equations, indicate that particles are attracted to the plate with equilibrium separations between 0.4 and 0.7 nm. The interaction energies for particles larger than 10 nm are large enough (compared with kT) so that a sticking factor of one may be assumed in deposition calculation. For smaller particles this factor is reduced. (orig.)