Abstract:
High temperature high vacuum electrostatic levitation was combined with DSC experiments to determine the specific heat C<SUB>p</SUB> of the undercooled Zr<SUB>41.2</SUB>Ti<SUB>13.8</SUB>Cu<SUB>12.5</SUB>Ni<SUB>10.0</SUB>Be<SUB>22.5</SUB> liquid as a function of temperature. The containerless approach made it possible to undercool the melt to the glass transition temperature without inducing nucleation. Because the cooling process was purely radiative, noncontact temperature measurement techniques could be used to determine the specific heat to total hemispherical emissivity ratio, C<SUB>p</SUB>/epsilon<SUB>T</SUB>, for the undercooled liquid region. Using C<SUB>p</SUB> values which were independently obtained by DSC, epsilon<SUB>T</SUB> could be determined. With knowledge of C<SUB>p</SUB> of the undercooled liquid it was possible to determine other thermodynamic properties such as Gibbs free energy and entropy as a function of undercooling.
