Kinetics of decomposition in ionic solids: II. Neutron scattering study of the system AgCl-NaCl

The kinetic of decomposition in the quasi-binary ionic system AgCl-NaCl has been studied by means of time-resolved neutron diffraction and small-angle neutron scattering. The coherent critical point is estimated as 447 +/- 3 K, 24 K below the upper critical binodal temperature. The chemical decomposition is almost completed in the first 200 s irrespective of the temperature. The mechanical relaxation of the lattice, however, takes place on a much longer timescale and is dominated by coherency strains leading to metastable intermediate states.