A Thermophysical Perspective of the Inter-relationship between Debye Temperature and Electron Density

A comprehensive thermophysical analysis of the linkage between the Debye temperature θ_D and electron density n_e has been presented. Assuming that the Debye cut-off frequency ω_D is related to the effective oscillation frequency ω of screened ion cores of a metallic material, a simple analytical relationship could be established between θ_D, bonding electron density n_e, and materials density ρ_m. Alternately, it is possible to establish a consistent set of electron density n _e ^θ values using θ_D, which in the case of pure metals is shown to exhibit a linear scaling with Miedema’s thermochemical electron density n _e ^M values. The temperature, pressure, and composition dependencies of θ_D are addressed uniformly in terms of isobaric and isothermal volume variations of n_e; besides, invoking the subregular solution formalism for expressing composition-induced molar volume variation simple approximations for melting temperature T_m and vibrational entropy \( S_{T}^{\text{o}} \) have been suggested in terms of electron density. Estimates of θ_D, \( S_{298}^{\text{o}} \), and average sound velocity have been obtained for metastable bcc U_1−xZr_x solid solution.