Editorial - Thermodynamics Of Inorganic Systems By High Temperature Mass Spectrometry

More and more modern technologies are based on the processes taking place at high and very high temperatures. Among them solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology, production of the new power-efficient light sources and novel metallurgical processes (as separation of lanthanide and actinides by chemical vapour transport) should be noticed. The devices working at high temperatures, under different atmospheres and consisting of various chemicals being in a long-term contact often require application of materials of special properties. The corrosion, diffusion or vaporization processes, negligent under the ambient conditions, become the limiting factors of materials to be applied at high temperatures. It is a reason why interest of thermodynamic properties of the chemical components at high temperatures (of 1000 – 2000 K) is recently increasing. The knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative composition of the gaseous phase is necessary for a complete description of the chemical system under aforementioned conditions. Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry became in the last decades the most powerful tool in this kind of investigations.