Thermodynamic investigations of CdTe-HgTe solid solutions

Abstract

The activity of CdTe in pseudobinary CdTe-HgTe solid solution (with CdTe added in 10 mol.% increments) has been determined in the temperature range 735-840 K by an electrochemical technique using LiCl-KCl + 5 wt.% CdCl2 as the molten salt electrolyte. The activity of HgTe has been calculated by Gibbs-Duhem integration using the a function. From the e.m.f. values measured at different temperatures, various partial and excess thermodynamic quantities, namely Δ G ̄CdTeM, Δ H ̄CdTeM, Δ S ̄CdTeXS, Δ G ̄CdTeXS and Δ S ̄CdTeXS, have been obtained. The corresponding thermodynamic parameters for HgTe have also been computed. The integral molar properties of the solid solutions have been estimated from the partial quantities of the two components, CdTe and HgTe. © 1991.