The influence of the ideal mixing entropy on concentration profiles and diffusion paths in ternary systems Original Research Article

The diffusion profiles and the reaction paths in ternary solid solutions are determined by both thermodynamics and kinetics. The matrix of the diffusion coefficient can be described as the product of the Hessian matrix for the thermodynamic influences and the Onsager matrix for kinetic influences. In this paper the interest is focused on the influence of the ideal part of the Hessian matrix, i.e. the ideal mixing entropy on interdiffusion. The ideal diffusion profiles are calculated by a computer simulation and they are compared with experimental results from the literature. These comparisons reveal that in most cases the qualitative shape of the diffusion profiles and of the reaction paths can be considered as caused by the ideal mixing entropy. Surprisingly, the shape of the diffusion profiles turns out to depend on the component that was chosen as the so-called solvent of the ternary mixture. This means that the ideal reaction paths do not show the triangular symmetry expected for an ideal ternary system. Especially, reaction paths between starting positions showing the same concentration of one of the three components do not run along straight lines.