MATERIAL COMPATABILITY BETWEEN LIQUID METAL CURRENT COLLECTOR ALLOYS AND SOLID METALS ON MATERIAL COLLECTOR SURFACES WILL BE INVESTIGATED.

MATERIAL COMPATABILITY BETWEEN LIQUID METAL CURRENT COLLECTOR ALLOYS AND SOLID METALS ON MATERIAL COLLECTOR SURFACES WILL BE INVESTIGATED. LOW MELTING FUSIBLE TYPE ALLOYS WITH CAPABILITY OF OPERATING AT 200 DEG F OR BELOW WILL BE FEATURED WITH SOME CONSIDERATION OF SUITABLE MATERIALS IN THE 0-500 DEG F RANGE. A THOROUGH LITERATURE SEARCH FOR PERTINENT PHYSICAL, MECHANICAL, AND SURFACE INTERACTIVE INFORMATION BETWEEN LIQUID AND SOLID METALS WILL BE CONDUCTED. AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM WILL VERIFY LITERATURE DATA AND PROCEED TO ADVANCE THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE BY TESTING NEW ALLOY MODIFICATIONS THAT APPEAR TO SHOW PROMISE FROM A THEORETICAL STANDPOINT. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS, GRAVIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS, METALLOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ASSESSMENTS OF CANDIDATE LIQUID METAL/SOLID METAL COMBINATIONS WILL PROVIDE AN UNDERSTANDING TO ALLOW SURFACE INTERACTION PROCESS MODELING TO BE DEVELOPED AND REFINED BY INTERACTIVE EXPERIMENTS. THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF PHASE I IS TO IDENTIFY LIQUID METALS WITH A HIGH SUCCESS PROBABILITY AS COLLECTOR MATERIALS WITH MINIMUM SURFACE DETERIORATION AND INTERACTION. PHASE II WILL CONCENTRATE ON DEVELOPING PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE NEW ALLOYS.