Solute interactions with dissolved oxygen in molten copper systems

In fire refining of copper, the affinities of various impurity elements on dissolved oxygen is of great significance. Further, in the design of oxygen probes in liquid copper, the influence of solute interactions on the activity of oxygen need to be considered in order to evaluate the oxygen concentration in molten copper. The present paper presents a series of measurements of the activities of oxygen in liquid Cu-M-O alloys, (where M stands for Mn Zn, As, Se or Te) carried out by the present group employing the solid electrolyte galvanic cell technique. Extreme care was taken to control the oxygen potentials in the inert gas atmosphere, and to keep the oxygen levels very low in the molten metal.. The oxygen content was determined by analysis of the samples taken out from the melt. The results obtained showed that Mn has a strong negative influence on the activity coefficient of oxygen in liquid copper. A similar, but less prominent effect was observed in the case of Zn. Arsenic had no,influence on the activity of oxygen in Cu (liq.). Se and Te had slight negative effect on oxygen activities in copper at X-o >10(-5), while at lower oxygen levels the interaction coefficients were found to be positive. The results obtained were compared with empirical models for the calculation of interaction coefficients available in literature.