X-ray diffraction study of liquid mercury over temperature range 173 to 473 K

Abstract

The structure of liquid mercury has been studied with both Cu_Kα and Mo_Kα radiation using a theta–theta diffractometer with monochromator in the diffracted beam. Special attention has been paid to the temperature dependence of the liquid structure and the use of small droplets of about 5 μm diameter actually allowed measurements on supercooled liquid down to 60 K below the normal melting point. No significant variation in the first coordination number is observed over the temperature range studied, the change in the shape and the height of the first peak of the structure factor being probably due to some long range correlation increase when the temperature is lowered. A structure model based on a relaxed lattice is found to fit satisfactorily the experimental pair correlation function for liquid mercury.