1978 Volume 19 Issue 10 Pages 546-552
Calculations of the crystal-melt interfacial free energy at the melting temperature have been carried out using a method based upon Ewing’s model in which the interfacial entropy is evaluated from the liquid radial distribution function. A simple expression is proposed for the energetic contribution to the interfacial free energy for the case of average, high-index crystallographic orientations exposed to the melt, permitting the determination of the interfacial free energy for any metal for which a dependable experimental radial distribution function is available. Calculations have been made for 37 metals. The results are found to agree closely with previous experimental determinations of the interfacial free energy from both homogeneous nucleation data (corrected to the melting point) and dihedral angle studies.