Studies of the local structures of molten metal halides

Abstract

This review covers the local structure of molten metal halide, where a somewhat wide definition of “local structure” is employed, i.e. from the first shell of interacting neighbours up to correlations arising at the nanometer length scale. These particular liquids are indeed strongly organized at unusually long distances due to the predominance of coulombic interactions. Many of them are also characterized by the formation of intermediate range ordering. It is therefore impossible to describe the local structure of these liquids omitting this longer-ranged correlation. Finally, a deeper attention is given to the systems on which recent progresses have been made in the last decade, as for instance molten fluorides and rare earth halides.