Adiabatic compressibility of an immiscible molten NaCl–AgI salt mixture

Abstract

Adiabatic compressibility β of an immiscible 0.5NaCl + 0.5AgI liquid mixture in the immiscibility range is studied experimentally and theoretically using the model of charged hard spheres. The compressibility is calculated by the relationship β = 1/u²ρ studied using sound velocity u measured by a pulse method and density ρ determined by hydrostatic weighing. It is shown that the compressibility of the upper phase decreases and that of the lower phase increases when the temperature increases because of the superposition of the effects of the thermal motion of ions and the phase compositions. The temperature dependence of the difference between the compressibilities of the equilibrium phases is described using the empirical equation Δβ = (T_c–T)^0.442, which is close to the mean-field theory description. The results of the model calculations adequately reproduce the experimentally observed temperature dependence of the compressibility of the coexisting phases. However, the theoretically predicted critical exponent (1/2) differs from the experimentally determined exponent by 13%. These results are discussed in terms of the nature of chemical bond in silver iodide.