Q. What is Alloys?

Metals have a property of combining with other metals to form alloys. An alloy may be defined as a solid which is formed by a combination of two or more metallic elements, but it itself has metallic properties. Most alloys are solid solutions. For example, brass an alloy of copper and zinc is a solid solution of zinc in copper. In brass some of the copper atoms of face-centred cubic lattice are randomly replaced by zinc atoms. Similarly, bronze an alloy of copper and tin is a solid solution of tin in copper. But not all alloys are solid solutions. Some alloys, such as bismuth-cadmium alloys are heterogeneous mixtures containing tiny crystals of the constituent metals. Others such as MgCu₂ are intermetallic compounds which contain metals combined in definite proportions.