Effect of Alloying on the Energy-Levels of Inner Electronic Shells

Abstract

WHEN two elements such as copper and zinc are alloyed together there is a change in the distribution of the valence electrons; charge is transferred from zinc atoms to copper atoms. Thus Mott¹ has estimated that ∼ 0.1 electron is transferred from zinc to copper in β-brass. Again, the calculated charge shift in a concentrated copper–zinc alloy is ∼ 0.5 c electron transferred from each zinc cell to a copper cell, where c is the concentration of copper in the alloy². In the latter case there is reasonably good agreement between the change in width of the valence electron energy bands for zinc and copper as observed experimentally and as calculated assuming that the energy-levels of the valence electrons in the alloy can be separated into two free-electron bands, one for zinc and one for copper, with a common Fermi energy.