Thermodynamic evaluation and optimization of Al-La, Al-Ce, Al-Pr, Al-Nd and Al-Sm systems using the Modified Quasichemical Model for liquids

The Al-La, Al-Ce, Al-Pr, Al-Nd and Al-Sm (Al-light rare earth) binary systems have been systematically assessed and optimized based on the available experimental data and ab-initio data using the FactSage thermodynamic software. Optimized model parameters of the Gibbs energies for all phases which reproduced all the reliable experimental data to satisfaction have been obtained. The optimization procedure was biased by putting a strong emphasis on the observed trends in the thermodynamic properties of Al-RE phases. The Modified Quasichemical Model, which takes short-range ordering into account, is used for the liquid phase and the Compound Energy Formalism is used for the solid solutions in the binary systems. It is shown that the Modified Quasichemical Model used for the liquid alloys permits us to obtain entropies of mixing that are more reliable than that based on the Bragg-Williams random mixing model which does not take short-range ordering into account. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.