CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ELECTRONIC DENSITY OF METALS IN TERMS OF THE BULK MODULUS

In the present work a semiempirical method for characterizing the elec tronic density of pure metals (or, equivalently, the mean radius, r(s) , per electron) from the bulk modulus is proposed. The general feature s of this method are discussed and shown to be simple and useful for m any situations. Knowledge of r(s) is important because it determines s everal important properties of the metal. For instance, the interactio n with a hydrogen impurity is dominated by the interstitial electron d ensity, and we check the applicability of the obtained values of r(s) by evaluating the volume of solution of hydrogen in pure metals. Our r esults are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data .