Isotope effect for self-diffusion in liquid lithium and tin

Diffraction data on the structure of lithium in conjunction with the Schommers algorithm were used to construct models of liquid lithium at 470 K and an effective interparticle potential. The self-diffusion coefficients for the lithium isotopes were calculated by the molecular dynamics method. The calculated self-diffusion coefficient of liquid lithium satisfactorily agrees with the available experimental data. The mass coefficient for self-diffusion was found to lie within 0.03-0.05. Similar values were obtained for liquid tin over the temperature range from 523 to 1973 K. The rigid-sphere model predicts somewhat higher values.