RESISTANCES OF TITANIUM AND CHROMIUM CARBIDES

The electrical resistances were measured at room and elevated temperatures by means of a special apparatus with the usual potentiometric circuit. The influence of porosity was eliminated by the method of [13]. The irradiated specimens were annealed for i h in a tube furnace in argon at 400- 1200~ (the temperature was varied by 2 00 ~ steps). The furnace and resistance meter were placed in a 2KZ shielding chamber, and therefore all the manipulations and measurements were made by remote control. We found that neutron irradiation markedly increases the electrical resistance of the carbides. For CrTC 3, the increase was 35% for 1018 neutrons/cm 2 and 60% for 1020 neutrons/cm 2. The resistance of titanium carbide showed smaller alterations - 19% and 23% for the above doses, and 14% for 1016neutrona/cm 2. The resistance was measured for five to ten samples at room temperature, before and after irradiation. For each sample, the change in resistance was measured to within +3%. The scatter for the various specimens was :~ 15%. The averaged results are given in Table 1 below.