MARTENSITE AND EQUILIBRIUM PHASES IN HUME-ROTHERY NOBLE-METAL ALLOYS

On the basis of recently published data for the martensitic transformations in Cu-Zn-Al alloys, an evaluation of the phase stabilities of martensitic and equilibrium phases in other noble-metal alloys has been made. The contributions which control the Gibbs energy of the different phases are discussed quantitatively. The most important of these are the stability of the disordered phases, the vibrational entropy, the influence of the long-range order characterized by pair interchange energies, the structure-dependent lattice distortions and the energies associated with the stacking sequences in the different close-packed phases.