Experimental investigation and thermodynamic calculation of the phase equilibria in the Cu-Ni-Sb ternary system

We investigated the phase equilibria in the Cu-Ni-Sb ternary system at 800 C, 900 C, 1000 C, and 1100 C using equilibrated ternary alloys by optical microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction analysis. Based on the experimental phase equilibria data, the Cu-Ni-Sb ternary system was thermodynamically optimized by calculating phase diagrams using the CALPHAD method. Substitutional solution and sublattice models were used to describe the solution and intermediate phases, respectively. The self-consistent parameters describing the Gibbs energy of each phase in the Cu-Ni-Sb system were optimized, obtaining reasonable agreement between the calculated results and most of the experimental data.