Chemical potential of germanium in its α-solid solutions with copper, silver and gold

Thin foils of copper, silver and gold were equilibrated with tetragonal GeO₂ under controlled co/co₂ source gas streams at 1000 K. The equilibrium concentration of germanium in the foils was determined by the X-ray fluorescence technique. The standard free energy of formation of tetragonal GeO₂ was measured by a solid oxide galvanic cell. The chemical potential of germanium calculated from the experimental data and the free energies of formation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide was found to decrease in the sequence Ag + Ge > Au + Ge > Cu + Ge. The more negative value for the chemical potential of germanium in solid copper, compared to that in solid gold, cannot be explained in terms of the strain energy factor, electro-negativity differences or the vaporization energies of the solvent, and suggests that the d band and its hybridization with s electrons are an important factor in determining the absolute values for the chemical potential in dilute solutions. However, the variation of the chemical potential with solute concentration can be correlated to the concentration of s and p electrons in the outer shell