Study of electric potentials across a moving solid-liquid interface

Abstract

The electric potential across a melting sample of pure lead was measured as a function of time. A difference of the order of a few hundred microvolts was seen between the measured values of the potential and those calculated using the temperature gradients and the thermopowers of the solid and the liquid phases. This difference persists as long as the solid-liquid interface moves and is attributed to the Galvani potential present at the solid-liquid interface. It is suggested that such measurements can be used to obtain the value of the Fermi energy for liquids.