New precise determination of the high temperature unusual temperature dependent thermopower of liquid divalent cadmium and zinc

Abstract

We do not know any precise measurement of the absolute thermopower (ATP) of liquid cadmium and zinc at high temperatures. For liquid cadmium, there are, in the literature, apparent contradictory results. Bath and Kliem and North and Wagner observed that the ATP increases with temperature between 350 °C and 650 °C, but Bradley observed the opposite behaviour between 600 °C and 750 °C. In this work we measured accurately the absolute thermopower of liquid cadmium from the melting point up to 900 °C. We find a maximum around 520 °C, and then the thermopower decreases down to a surprising negative value. To our knowledge, it is the first time that such an unusual behaviour is reported. Nevertheless, it is qualitatively consistent with all the authors mentioned and the apparent contradictory results should only be due to the different temperature ranges of measurements. Using the ATP expression from the Faber-Ziman formalism, we can fit very well the experimental absolute thermopower versus temperature curve with only one adjustable parameter. For this, we have considered that the temperature dependence of the ATP is dominated by the resistivity, and we have introduced the experimental resistivity temperature dependence in the ATP expression. The very good fitting quality demonstrates that our hypothesis is consistent. In contrast, the liquid zinc ATP only increases with temperature. Nevertheless, near 1100 °C, the highest temperature achieved, it shows saturation that may be an indication of a decrease at higher temperature. The same type of fitting gives also quite good results.