Diffusional growth of compound LaNi5 during cathodic lanthanum incorporation into nickel

The authors have developed an electrochemical procedure for determining thermodynamic and diffusion properties of intermetallic compounds (IMC) and have used it to examine Cu2M /SUB g/ . In this work the authors describe results obtained by electrochemical studies of the diffusion properties of the intermetallic compound LaNi5 according to the same procedure. Results are shown for the first series of experiments which were used to calculate the self-diffusion coefficients. The second series of experiments was performed at a preformed LaNi5 layer. The results of the present work demonstrate the large potential of the technique employed. Information was obtained concerning the concentration dependence of the interdiffusion coefficient in an IMC having a narrow homogeneity range and strong departures from ideal behavior