Hydrogen storage properties and microstructure of melt-spun Mg90Ni8RE2 (RE [ Y, Nd, Gd).pdf

i n t e rn a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n en e r g y 3 6 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 0 8 0 8e1 0 8 1 5Avai lab le at www.sc iencedi rect .com journa l homepage : www.e lsev ie r . com/ loca te /heHydrogen storage properties and microstructure of melt-spun Mg90Ni8RE2 (RE [ Y, Nd, Gd)Siarhei Kalinichenka a,*, Lars Ro?ntzsch b,**, Thomas Riedl a, Thomas Wei?ga?rber b, Bernd Kieback a,b aDresden University of Technology, Institute for Materials Science, Helmholtzstra?e 7, 01069 Dresden, Germany b Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), Branch Lab Dresden, Winterbergstra?e 28, 01277 Dresden, Germanya r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 March 2011 Received in revised form 18 May 2011 Accepted 24 May 2011 Available online 6 July 2011 Keywords: Hydrogen storage material Metal hydride Magnesium alloy Melt spinning Nanocrystallinity Cycle stability* Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. Tel.: t49 351 253 74 E-mail addresses: Siarhei.Kalinichenka@t 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright a doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.05.147a b s t r a c t For hydrogen storage applications a nanocrystalline Mg90Ni8RE2 alloy (RE ? Y, Nd, Gd) was produced by melt spinning. The microstructure in the as-cast, melt-spun and hydroge- nated state was characterized by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Its activation, hydrogenation/dehydrogenation properties and cycle stability were examined by ther- mogravimetry in the temperature range from 50 C to 385 C and pressures up to 30 bar H2. It was found that the activated alloy can reach a reversible gravimetric hydrogen storage density of up to 5.6 wt.%-H. Furthermore, the reversible gravimetric hydrogen storage density increases with the number of hydrogenation/dehydrogenation cycles, while the dehydrogenation rate remained unchanged. This observation was attributed to the increase of the specific surface area of the ribbon due to cracking during repeated cycling. However, the m