A nanocrystal model for liquid metals and amorphous metals has been developed. With the nanocrystal model, the broadening peak profiles (BPPs) of Cu, Al, Al65Cu20Fe15 alloy, Cu70Ni30 alloy and Fe50Si50 alloy were gained by broadening the X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks of a crystal lattice. By comparing the BPPs with the XRD intensity curves measured on the liquid metals, it is found that the BPPs are closely in agreement with the XRD intensity curves, respectively, except the Fe50Si50 alloy. Therefore, the nanocrystal model can be used to determine if the atomic cluster structure of the liquid metal is similar to the structure of its crystal lattice.
X.L. Tian, C.W. Zhan, J.X. Hou, X.C. Chen and J.J. Sun Key Laboratory of Liquid Structure and Heredity of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
