High Pressure Melting Curve of Fe-Si: Implication for the Thermal Properties in Mercury's Core

Abstract

The motion of liquid iron (Fe) alloy materials in the outer core drives the dynamo, which generates Mercury's magnetic field. The assessment of core models requires laboratory measurements of the melting temperature of Fe alloys at high pressure. Here, we experimentally determined the melting curve of Fe9wt%Si and Fe17wt%Si up to 17 GPa using in situ and ex situ measurements of intermetallic fast diffusion that serves as the melting criterion in a large-volume press. Our determined melting slopes are comparable with previous studies up to about 17 GPa. However, when extrapolated, our melting slopes significantly deviate from previous studies at higher pressures. For Mercury's core with a model composition of Fe9wt%Si, the melting temperature-depth profile determined in our study is lower by ∼150–250 K when compared with theoretical calculations. Using the new melting curve of Fe9wt%Si and the electrical resistivity values from a previous study of Fe8.5wt%Si, we estimate that the electronic thermal conductivity of liquid Fe9wt%Si is 30 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹ at the Mercury's CMB pressure of 5 GPa and 37 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹ at an assumed ICB of 21 GPa, corresponding to heat flux values of 23 mWm⁻² and 32 mWm⁻², respectively. These values provide new constraints on the core models.