Thermal conductivity of binary Platinum-Iridium alloys

Abstract

Measurements of thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of Platinum-Iridium alloys at different compositions are performed. The thermal conductivities measured by the electrical-heating method and the cross-wire geometry agree well with each other. For the binary alloys with Ir compositions of 6 at.% to 15 at.%, the thermal conductivity varies linearly with temperature, which can be related to the electrical counterpart by using the classical Simth-Palmer formula. The lattice component of the thermal conductivity is found to be nearly composition-independent, contributing to about 20~25% of the total thermal conductivity.