Surface tension of liquid Al–Cu binary alloys

Abstract Surface tension data of liquid Al–Cu binary alloys have been measured contactlessly using the technique of electromagnetic levitation. A digital CMOS-camera (400 fps) recorded image sequences of the oscillating liquid sample and surface tensions were determined from analysis of the frequency spectra. Measurements were performed for samples covering the entire range of composition and precise data were obtained in a broad temperature range. It was found that the surface tensions can be described as linear functions of temperature with a negative slope. Moreover, they monotonically decrease with an increase in the aluminium concentration. The observed behaviour with respect to both temperature and concentration is in agreement with thermodynamic model calculations using the subregular solution approximation.