Determination and modeling of the thermodynamic properties of liquid calcium–antimony alloys

The thermodynamic properties of Ca–Sb alloys were determined by emf measurements in a cell configured as Ca(s)|CaF2|Ca–Sb over the temperature range 550–830 °C. Activity coefficients of Ca and Sb, enthalpy, Gibbs free energy, and entropy of mixing of Ca–Sb alloys were calculated for xCa < 0.55. To explain the connection between short-range order of liquid Ca–Sb alloys and the strong deviation from ideality in the thermodynamic properties, two thermodynamic models were invoked and reconciled: the regular associated solution model, assuming the presence of a CaSb2 associate, and the molecular interaction volume model (MIVM). For the first time, the MIVM was used successfully to model the activity coefficients of a system with high-melting intermetallics, reducing the number of fitting parameters necessary from 5 (regular associated model) to 2 (MIVM). From the interaction parameters optimized by fitting at 800 °C, the activity coefficient of Ca was predicted at 650 °C, with an average error of less than 0.6% in the emf value.