Energy of the Pb{111}‖Al{111} interface

Abstract

The energy of the Pb{111}ሻAl{111} interface has been determined by a solid-state wetting technique. Pb crystallites, 18 m or less in size, were equilibrated on a monocrystalline Al{111} substrate at 590 K under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Auger electron spectroscopy of the equilibrated sample showed that about 1.8 monolayers of Pb are adsorbed on the surface of the Al substrate, but that no Al is adsorbed on the Pb surface. The contact angle of Pb crystallites with the orientation relationship Pb{111}ሻAl{111} was measured to be 27.3 Ϯ 0.8 deg. After correction of the Al surface energy for Pb adsorption, by means of the Gibbs adsorption isotherm, the Young equation was used to obtain an interfacial energy of 217 Ϯ 35 mJ m Ϫ2 .

Wetting of decagonal Al13Co4and cubic AlCo thin films by liquid Pb

“…The contact angles of Pb on alumina single-crystal and on thick native oxide of aluminium have been reported to be 127±3° and 130±5°, respectively [10]. They are much larger than 90°.…”

“…1. On the other hand, contact angles of Pb on aluminium single crystal and on polycrystalline film of Al are close to 30±5° [10,11]. It is only on polycrystalline films of Co that the contact angle of Pb, 50±6° [12], is similar to that on AlCo and Al 13 Co 4 .…”

Nonwetting Behavior of Al–Co Quasicrystalline Approximants Owing to Their Unique Electronic Structures

“…25−27 However, in most cases, the simulations largely rely on classical potentials. This may lead to interfacial energies (γ) and contact angles (θ) significantly different from the ones determined experimentally, even for simple systems such as Pb(111)/ Al(111) 28,30 which questions the possibility of assessing accurate values of contact angles from classical potentials which do not explicitly consider electronic effects.…”

Energetics of Solid/Solid and Liquid/Solid Interfaces

“…However, additional assumptions are necessary in cases where the adsorption exceeds one monolayer, thereby increasing the probable error of the final results. The values obtained were 217 ± 34 mJ/m 2 and 330 ± 40mJ/m 2 for the Pb/Al {111} and Pb/Al {100} interfacial energies, respectively [6,7]. Although these results do provide values that may be useful for the interpretation of experiments on the Pb-Al system, the probable errors are larger than we would have desired.…”