Abstract
The investigation of normally-metallic fluids at reduced densities has created considerable experimental and theoretical interest. Hensel1 has presented evidence for transitions, related to electronic properties, in both the liquid and vapour phases of Hg, and predicted that these would affect the liquid–vapour transition. We present here evidence that the vapour pressure curve of Hg, p(T), has an unusual and probably unique form in that the In p against 1/T plot showed a sharp change of slope at temperature T = T′ = 1,361 K and saturated liquid density ρL = 10.7 g cm−3. The latter is about the density at which Hensel1 deduced that the electronic mean free path equalled the mean interatomic spacing, and which he took to be associated with the electronic-property related transition in the liquid phase.
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Hubbard, S., Ross, R. Slope anomaly in the vapour pressure curve of Hg. Nature 295, 682–683 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/295682a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/295682a0
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