Copper and silver alloys under extreme conditions

We report about XAS (X-ray absorption spectroscopy) and ESXD (energy scanning X-ray diffraction) experiments on molten CuxSn1-x and AgxPd1-x and CuxPd1-x alloys under high-pressure/high-temperature conditions for selected concentration. Recent advances in the analysis of XAS spectra of molten or disordered binary systems in the framework of the GNXAS method are discussed and their application to determine partial pair distribution functions in Cu6Sn5 is shown. The resulting distributions are compared with published X-ray diffraction data. Results about the disorder-order transition in Ag0.5Pd0.5 and Cu0.6Pd0.4 fcc random alloys are briefly discussed.