Critical Properties of Aluminum

Aluminum is one of the most ubiquitous elements on Earth. Since its isolation in 1825, aluminum has found many technological uses, but its physical properties are well-known only at low reduced temperature. In this work, Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo calculations are performed using a validated embedded-atom potential to obtain the vapor-liquid coexistence curve and the critical properties for elemental aluminum. This demonstrates the ability of modern simulations to predict fundamental physical properties that are extremely difficult to measure directly. Due to their strong cohesive interactions, the critical properties of most metals are not amenable to conventional experiments, and only the critical temperatures, Tc, of mercury and alkalis have been measured directly.1 Estimates of Tc for other metals are based upon relationships between Tc and other measured thermodynamic properties. For Al, an analysis of isobaric expansion experiments