IUPAC-NIST Solubility Data Series. 75. Nonmetals in Liquid Alkali Metals
Authors: Borgstedt Hans Ulrich , Guminski Cezary , Borgstedt Hans Ulrich , Guminski Cezary 
Published: July 2002

have several physical which favor their use in a number of important applications. For example, their large temperature range and their excellent are important for use as media. They are used in large nuclear reactors in which hundreds of tons of are circulating, and in small parts of engines for cooling of valves. Since these metals are among the most electropositive elements, several of them (Li, can be used in high specific capacity and high energy density batteries at moderately elevated temperatures. The compatibility of metallic constructional materials which are used to contain the is strongly influenced by present in the The physical of the are also influenced by dissolved substances. Several dissolved in are able to form ternary compounds with components of the constructional materials. Thus, corrosion and compatibility studies have been accompanied by extensive chemical work related to the of non-metallic substances in All available data of nonmetallic elements and some of their compounds in the five solvents (Li, K, Rb, and Cs) are collected and compiled. Original publications with reliable data and information on the methods used to generate them are reported in individual Compilations. When numerical data are not given in a publication, the data are often read out from figures and converted into numerical data by the compilers. The precision of this procedure is indicated in the Compilations under Estimated Error. Evaluated data are tabulated at the end of the Critical Evaluations: if there is agreement of at least two independent studies within the experimental error, the values are assigned to the “recommended” category. Values are assigned as “tentative,” if only one reliable result was reported, or if the mean value of two or more reliable studies was outside the error limits. In the tabulation, three, two, or one significant figures are assigned for respective precisions that are better than ±1% and ±10% and worse than ±10%. If necessary, the are recalculated into mol %. The completeness of this investigation of the literature has been confirmed and extended by studying several reviews dealing with the chemistry of substances in the data are sometimes measured under parameters, which are not standard conditions of such measurements. Frequently measurements are performed under constrained pressure. The of noble gases or other gases, which do not form compounds with the depends on the gas pressures. This dependency is documented in the data sheets. Schematic phase diagrams are presented in systems for which they assist the understanding of the data and the conclusions. They are based on the most recent state of knowledge and generally presented in the Critical Evaluations. Some diagrams are shown in form of a log versus reciprocal temperature function. These figures illustrate the larger scatter of data for systems in which interfering reactions cause unstable behavior of While several are well defined substances, other systems need still additional studies to define the equilibrium state compound. One should realize that estimations of the stoichiometry and thermal stability of ternary compounds are experimentally difficult, and their results are often uncertain.