Enthalpies of formation of LA-Fe alloys

1. THERMODYNAMICS OF SHAPE MEMORY AND HEUSLER ALLOYSPhilip G. Nash, Illinois Institute of Technology, DMR 09464812 Binary transition metal-rare earth (LA) shape-memory and Heusler alloys possess properties that may be used in many applications such as actuators. We have experimentally determined the heats of formation and specific heats of selected binary and ternary alloys. Through an international collaboration we have results of ab initio calculations for comparison with our data. For LA-Fe alloys experimental enthalpies are small and approximately constant vs rare earth atomic number whereas the ab initio calculations exhibit increasing formation enthalpy with atomic number. Results were published and presented at two conferences during the year: 4th Sino-German Symp. on Comp. Thermo. & Kinetics and CALPHAD XLI, Jun. 2012. Enthalpies of formation of LA-Fe alloys

2. THERMODYNAMICS OF SHAPE MEMORY AND HEUSLER ALLOYSPhilip G. Nash, Illinois Institute of Technology, DMR 09464812 We have mentored 2 more high school students this year from IMSA , one male, one female in their research projects in our laboratory. We have continued a collaboration with the research group of Prof. Du from CSU, China on ab initio calculations. We continue to build our web accessible database of experimental formation enthalpies for use by the larger community which is available at: tptc.iit.edu Presentation TPTC meeting, Chicago, May 2012. Research group members with IMSA students, Zoe Phillips and Gary Chen.