To overcome the hydrogen-induced amorphization and phase disproportionation in the fast de-/hydrogenation of YFe2, the alloying of partial substituting Y with Zr was carried out to obtain Y1-xZrxFe2 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5) alloys. All Y Zr Fe alloys remained single C15 Laves phase structure at states of as-annealed, hydrogenated and dehydrogenated. With the increasing of Zr content, the Y Zr Fe alloys showed the decrease in the lattice constants and hydrogenation capacity, but the increase in the dehydrogenation capacity and dehydriding equilibrium pressure. The alloy Y0.9Zr0.1Fe2 showed maximum initial hydrogenation capacity of 1.87 wt% H, while the alloy Y0.5Zr0.5Fe2 showed highest desorption capacity of 1.26 wt% with obvious dehydriding plateau. Based on experiment analysis and first principle calculation of binding energy, the great improvement in the dehydriding thermodynamics for Y Zr Fe alloys is attributed to the change in the unit cell volume, electron concentration and stability of hydrides due to the Zr substitution. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.