Physical Property Evaluation for High Purity Niobium and Tantalum Rare Metals

Abstract

Thermal, electrical and mechanical properties of high purity niobium and tantalum refractory rare metals were investigated to evaluate the physical purity. Higher purity niobium and tantalum metals showed lower hardness due to smaller solution hardening effect. Temperature dependence of electrical resistivity showed a typical metallic behavior. Remarkable decrease in electrical resistivity was observed for a high purity specimen at low temperature. However, thermal conductivity increased for a high purity specimen, and abrupt increase in thermal conductivity was observed at very low temperature, indicating typical temperature dependence of thermal conductivity for high purity metals. It can be known that reduction of electron-phonon scattering leads to increase in thermal conductivity of high purity niobium and tantalum metals at low temperature.