Ab initio molecular dynamics study of temperature dependent structure properties of liquid lead–bismuth eutectic alloy

Considerable attention has been devoted to liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy due to its potential application as spallation target and coolant in future sub-critical reactors. Whether there exists an abnormal structural change at high temperatures in this liquid alloy is still under debate. In this paper, we perform ab initio molecular dynamics simulation on the structure and dynamics of liquid LBE at different temperatures from 573 to 1173 K. Through the analysis of the pair correlation function, static structure factor, coordination number, atomic bonded pair, excess entropy, and diffusion constant with increasing temperature, we find that these structure-sensitive quantities change gradually with temperature and exhibit linear temperature dependence. No abnormal structural transformations with temperature variation are observed.