New alloy shows promise as hydrogen-resistant material for energy storage
Researchers have created a specialized metal alloy that resists hydrogen absorption better than expected, potentially opening doors for safer hydrogen storage containers and fuel cell infrastructure. The finding could help industries deploy hydrogen technologies at scale without costly material degradation.
Originaltitel: Hydrogenation Behavior of a Fine-Grained Ti-V-Zr-Nb-Mo-Hf-Ta-W Refractory High-Entropy Alloy Produced by Plasma-Assisted Centrifugal Atomization
<p>In this work, the hydrogenation behavior of a near-equiatomic Ti-V-Zr-Nb-Mo-Hf-Ta-W refractory high-entropy alloy (R-HEA) exposed to pressurized hydrogen has been thoroughly investigated. Isothermal gas-phase hydrogen absorption experiments have been performed and a maximum uptake of 1.13 wt.% H has been achieved after exposure to a pure H2 atmosphere at 350 °C and 60 bar H2 for 6 h. This hydrogen absorption capacity is rather low compared to previous literature, where capacities as high as 2.7 wt.% have been reported. The presence of two distinct (Hf,Zr)-mixed oxides at the surface of the particles has been deduced from X-ray diffraction analyses and identified as the main reason for the relatively low H uptake and the minimal impact onto the mechanical integrity of the R-HEA after hydrogenation. The results hereby reported suggest that R-HEAs containing strong oxide-forming elements such as Hf, Zr, and Ti undergo surface hydrogenation-regeneration upon intermittent exposure to a hydrogen atmosphere. The cyclic nature of such phenomena should be further investigated, as it could lead to the development of novel, self-regenerating protective materials against hydrogen diffusion and embrittlement to be potentially used as permeation barriers.</p>