Thermodynamic investigations of uranium-rich binary and ternary alloys

Uranium–zirconium, uranium niobium, and uranium–zirconium–niobium alloys were synthesized by the arc melting technique and their phase transition temperatures were determined using a high temperature calorimeter. Heat capacities of U–7 wt%Zr, U–7 wt%Nb, U–5 wt%Zr–2 wt%Nb, U–3.5 wt%Nb–3.5 wt%Zr, and U–2 wt%Zr–5 wt%Nb were measured using a differential scanning calorimeter in the temperature range 303–921 K. A set of self-consistent thermodynamic functions such as entropy, enthalpy, and Gibbs energy function data for these binary and ternary alloys were reported for the first time using heat capacity data obtained in this study and required literature data.