Electrical transport properties of ZrFe2−xCrxHy

Abstract

We have measured the electrical resistivity for ZrFe2-xCrx as a function of temperature between 20 K and 300 K. We have found that the dominant scattering mechanism for conduction electrons is changed from scattering by phonons to that due to the disordered atomic potentials as Cr composition is increased. We have also measured the thermoelectric power (TEP) for ZrFe2-xCrx and the hydrides of x = 0.6 and 1.5 as a function of temperature in the same range of temperature. For the alloys before hydrogenation, the non-linear temperature dependence of TEP is changed into the linear temperature dependence as Cr composition is increased. TEP for the hydride of x = 0.6 and 1.5 exhibits a positive hump at low temperatures, From these results, we have found that the hydrogen plays the role of an attractive scattering centre for the conduction electrons.