Temperature and oxygen adsorption coupling effects upon the surface tension of liquid metals

An accurate knowledge of the surface tension of liquid metals is critical for many theoretical and practical applications, especially in the current context of emerging growth of nanotechnology. The surface tension and its temperature dependence are drastically influenced by the level of impurities in the metal such as oxygen, sulphur or carbon. For this reason, experimental surface tension data of metals reported in literature are scattered. Strictly speaking, when referring to the surface tension of liquid metals, both variables temperature and oxygen content must be specified. There exists no clear formalism describing the coupling effect temperature and the oxygen content upon the surface tension of liquid metals. The aim of this work is to fill this gap. A thermodynamically self-consistent formulation for the surface tension of liquid metals and semiconductors as a function of temperature and oxygen content is established. According to the proposed formalism, a reliable expression for the surface tension of pure and oxygen saturated metals is then derived. The proposed model is found to be in good agreement with available experimental data, showing a good predictive capability. Aluminium is chosen and thoroughly evaluated as a case study, due to its very high sensitivity to oxygen level. Its surface tension is explicitly formulated as a function of temperature and oxygen content.