Thermodynamic laws of the oxygen solubility in liquid metals (Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr) and the formation of oxygen-containing solutions in the alloys based on them

The solubility of oxygen in liquid Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, and Cr metals (Group IV in the periodic table) has been found for the first time. Linear dependences of the oxygen solubility on the standard Gibbs energy for the oxidation reaction of a liquid metal with gaseous oxygen are found. The revealed function of oxygen solubility is of scientific importance and allows one to develop a theory of oxygen solutions in liquid metals and liquid multicomponent metallic compositions and to calculate the energies of mixing of liquid metals with oxygen from ΔG O ° for metal oxidation reactions with allowance for pseudoregular-solution model equations. Using the energies of mixing and metal compositions, we calculated the equilibrium oxygen concentrations in a metal molten pool at the end of oxidation stage of melting 08Kh18N10T steel in an arc furnace. This fact indicates practical importance of the found function of the oxygen solubility in metals.