Nucleation and Growth of PbBrF Crystals at the Liquid Mercury-Electrolyte Interface Studied by Operando X-ray Scattering.

Detailed studies of electrochemically induced PbBrF deposition at the liquid mercury/liquid electrolyte interface are presented. The nucleation and growth were monitored using time-resolved X-ray diffraction and reflectivity combined with electrochemical measurements, revealing a complex potential-dependent behavior. PbBrF deposition commences at potentials above -0.

Atomic-scale surface demixing in a eutectic liquid BiSn alloy.

Resonant x-ray reflectivity of the surface of the liquid phase of the Bi(43)Sn(57) eutectic alloy reveals atomic-scale demixing extending over three near-surface atomic layers. Because of the absence of an underlying atomic lattice which typically defines adsorption in crystalline alloys, studies of adsorption in liquid alloys provide unique insight on interatomic interactions at the surface. The observed composition modulation could be accounted for quantitatively by the Defay-Prigogine and Strohl-King multilayer extensions of the single-layer Gibbs model, revealing a near-surface domination of the attractive Bi-Sn interaction over the entropy.