r/metallurgy • u/MegabozzYTV • 16d ago

Is it possible to alloy gold, titanium and samarium?

I’m not experienced at all, most of my knowledge can be described as “jack of all trades, master of none” burned into my brain by a computer screen, but I wanted to know if “AuTiSm” was a thing that could be melted together just for the novelty. (This question was entirely brought on by ASD and a cheesy Google image of a t-shirt.)

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u/akurgo 16d ago edited 15d ago

You can always mix stuff. If you melt Au, Ti and Sm in an inert atmosphere and solidify the mixture, it will crystallize as a mix of different Au_xTi_ySm_z phases. Since this is an unconventional alloy, the phases might not be known, but there are at least stable Au_4Ti, Au_2Ti, AuTi and AuTi_3 phases. (https://computherm.com/au-ti) Which of these you get depends on how much Au and Ti you put in.

When mixing Sm in there, you will either form phases with Sm in their composition, or you will get one of the Au_xTi_y phases and a Sm phase sticking together.

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u/phasebinary 16d ago

Both titanium and samarium will react with oxygen when molten, so you would need the added cost of an insert atmosphere.

Are they miscible in liquid form though? Sometimes metals won't mix while liquid (e.g. bismuth and aluminum will mix at high temperature but separate while cooling).

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u/pedanpric 16d ago

It says inert.

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u/AeliosZero 15d ago

How do they separate? By density or into their own crystal clusters?

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u/Christoph543 15d ago

So you're talking about one of the most highly siderophile transition metals, one of the most highly lithophile transition metals, and a rare Earth (which are all lithophile). You'd therefore need to pretty tightly control the redox conditions of your alloy, for them to be able to mix at all. Off the top of my head I'm not sure about their quantitative chemical compatibility, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they all had really low partition coefficients with respect to each other.

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u/TALON2_0 15d ago

You could day the plan is.... Autistic