Liquid structure feature of Zn-Bi alloys with resistivity and viscosity methods

In this paper, the liquid structure of Zn100-xBix (x = 5, 20, 40, 63, 80, 95) alloys were studied with resistivity and viscosity (for Zn20Bi80 and Zn80Bi20 alloys). The resistivity descends linearly and clusters size and viscous flow activation energy increase exponentially with the decreasing temperature for Zn20Bi80 alloy. For Zn80Bi20 alloy, viscous flow activation energy increases like parabola at temperatures 711 to 861 K and exponentially at temperatures from 886 to 1086 K and descends at temperature between 861 and 886 K. The resistivity curve is linear and parabolic at temperatures from 838 to 1085 K and 690 to 838 K respectively during cooling process, which is in accord with clusters size. There are differences of isothermal resistivity tendency between heating and cooling process. It has been found that the size of the fluid clusters is in negative correlation with resistivity and positive correlation with viscous flow activation energy. Resistivity is commonly controlled by the size of the fluid clusters and interface. The composition dependence of resistivity shows that the clusters are mainly composed of Bi-Bi coordination and the contribution of clusters to resistivity is related with the volume percentage of clusters in Zn-Bi alloy. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.