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All 2 posts | Subject: Making your own hydrides, easily | Please login to post | Down | |||||
jim (Hive Bee) 06-13-04 16:23 No 513160 |
Making your own hydrides, easily | |||||||
Here is an article that I found that might be of interest to some.... JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE LETTERS 18 (1999) 881– 883 Hydriding reactions induced by ball milling in group IV and V transition metals R. A. DUNLAP, D. A. SMALL, G. R. MACKAY Department of Physics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3J5 E-mail: dunlap@fizz.phys.dal.ca The early transition metals are known to absorb substantial quantities of hydrogen [1, 2]. These metal hydrides have a number of important commercial applications such as hydrogen storage materials and electrodes for batteries [2]. Particularly, in recent years there has been interest in titanium hydride for these purposes because of its high storage capacity [1]. However, such applications have been limited because of the difficulty in preparing metal hydrides. Typically hydrogenation is performed by exposing a metal sample to H2 gas at elevated temperature and/or pressure for several hours. This is followed by slow cooling in order to maintain maximum hydrogen content. The observation of the preparation of nitrides by the ball milling of metals under a nitrogen containing atmosphere [3, 4], suggest the possibility that metal hydrides may be produced by milling under an atmosphere of hydrogen. This process has recently been reported for titanium [5–8] as well as Mg and Zr [7, 8]. In the present work we report on investigations of hydrogen absorption during ball milling of all of the group IV and V early transition metals (Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Hf and Ta). For these experiments we have developed a hydrogen reservoir system which allows us to maintain the pressure of the hydrogen at approximately one atmosphere throughout the milling process. We are also able to continuously monitor the amount of hydrogen that is absorbed and demonstrate here that the hydrogen absorption rates during the ball milling are much higher than those obtained using other methods. The starting material for all experiments reported here was¡325 mesh elemental powder with a purity of 2N (Ti), 2N5 (V), 2N (Zr), 2N8 (Nb), 2N6 (Hf) and 3N (Ta). Milling was carried out using a Spex Model 8000 ball mill. A custom made hardened steel vial was used. This had a chamber that was approximately ellipsoidal in shape in order to avoid problems with the powder becoming caught in the corners of the more conventional cylindrical shaped vial. In all cases a 1.0 g sample and two 11.1 mm diameter hardened steel balls with a total weight of 11.34 g were used. During milling the vial was connected to a hydrogen gas reservoir system by means of a Norton Masterflex 6104-24 tygon tube. The total volume of the hydrogen systemwas approximately 8£103 cm3. For a nominal starting pressure of 1 atm, the absorption of 2 hydrogen atoms per metal atom for a 1 g sample corresponds to a decrease in the reservoir pressure of between about 6% (for Ti) and about 1.5% (for Ta), thus maintaining an approximately constant hydrogen pressure on the sample during the milling process. The pressure was measured by an Omega Model PX303-015ASV strain gauge type pressure transducer. The change in pressure in the system is related to the number of hydrogen atoms absorbed per metal atom, H=M as H M D 2V A1P Rm where V is the volume of the reservoir system (in cm3), A is the atomic weight of the metal, 1P is the pressure change in the system (in atmospheres), R is the standard volume of gas (in cm3) and m is the mass of the metal sample (in g). In some cases the temperature of the vial was monitored during milling by a type K thermocouple. The structure of samples was determined using room temperature X-ray diffraction measurements. A Siemens D500 scanning diffractometer and CuK® radiation was used. The number of hydrogen atoms per metal atom (H=M) absorbed as a function of milling time is illustrated in Fig. 1 for each of the samples studied here. In all cases the hydrogen absorption curves are characterized by an initial period during which there is little or no hydrogen absorption. This is followed by a period of rapid hydrogen absorption and saturation for longer times. In order to quantify these results we have defined three quantities as given in Table I. These are the maximum hydrogen absorption rate, (@H=@M)max, defined as the maximum slope of a line tangent to the absorption curve, the time for the onset of hydrogen absorption, t0, defined as the H=M D0 intercept of the line tangent to (@H=@M)max, and the saturation value H=M, given by the asymptotic value of H=M for long milling times. In general it is seen that those metals which have large TABLE I Saturation values of H=M, maximum hydrogen absorption rates (@H=@M)max, and time before absorption begins, t0, for the elements studied here. The mean crystallite size as determined by X-ray diffraction peak widths is given by hr i (@H=@M)max M (H=M)sat (min¡1) t0(min) hr i (nm) Ti 2.0 0.158 10 8 V 0.8 0.030 54 5 Zr 2.0 0.18 5 7 Nb 0.9 0.071 21 6 Hf 1.8 0.12 17 7 Ta 0.7 0.10 18 9 values of t0, also have small values of (@H=@M)max. This relationship is seen for the metals studied here in Fig. 3. The structure of the samples milled to saturation have been determined by X-ray diffraction techniques. A typical pattern is illustrated in Fig. 2. In all cases the patterns of the samples milled to saturation are consistent with those of metal hydrides with the stoichiometry as indicated in Table I and do not show the presence of any elemental metal. All X-ray diffraction patterns of milled samples show measurable line broadening indicative of small crystallites. The average crystallite size as determined by the Scherrer formula is given in Table I. Although the bulk diffusion rate of hydrogen in early transition metals is high [5], diffusion rates during conventional hydrogenation are limited by the presence of surface oxides. The greatly increased diffusion rates observed during ball milling has been attributed to several factors [5, 7]. (i) the formation of a large amount of oxide-free surface, (ii) the rapid reduction in grain size and (iii) the introduction of significant lattice defects. In the first case, the chemisorption of H2 molecules and their dissociation to form H atoms is promoted. In the second case, the reduced grain size means shorter diffusion lengths are necessary. It is also relevant that the embrittlement of the metals, which results from hydrogen absorption, further increases the effectiveness of the milling process at reducing the size of the grains. Finally it is known [8] that the introduction of lattice defects, such as dislocations, provides convenient routes along which hydrogen can diffuse through the metal. In the present study the initial period during which there is little or no hydrogen absorption by the sample corresponds to a period during which sample grains are reduced in size and lattice defects are introduced. This reduces the diffusion length necessary for hydrogen absorption and introduces lattice defects such as dislocations along which hydrogen can readily diffuse. This is followed by a period during which hydrogen actively diffuses into the sample. The rate at which hydrogen diffusion occurs does not show any direct relationship with literature values of the bulk hydrogen diffusion coefficient [1]. However, Fig. 3 illustrates an inverse relationship between the values of (@H=@M)max and t0 measured in the present work. This suggests that the maximum rate at which hydrogen diffuses into the sample is limited by the rate at which fresh surfaces and lattice defects are produced by milling. Presumably, the effectiveness of the milling process at promoting hydrogen absorption is determined to a large extent by the degree to which the partially hydrogenated sample becomes embrittled. The average grain size of the fully hydrogenated samples produced in the present investigation is in the range of 5–9 nm, as indicated in Table I. This is somewhat smaller than that reported in earlier work for TiH2 produced by ball milling [5]. This suggests that the continuous supply of hydrogen gas used in the present work may have been more effective at promoting rapid hydrogen diffusion which resulted in more substantial grain size reduction and faster saturation times. Thus rapid hydrogen absorption during ball milling appears to begin at some threshold grain size and/or defect concentration and proceeds to saturation as a result of continued particle size reduction. From a commercial standpoint the present results are important as they indicate that the diffusion of hydrogen into the early transition metals during ball milling is very rapid provided the hydrogen pressure is maintained at a reasonable level throughout the milling process. This method is, therefore, a simple and efficient means of producing single phase hydrides from elemental early transition metal precursors. References 1. G. ALEFELD and J . VOLKL, “Hydrogen in metals” (Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1978). 2. K. M. MACKAY, “Hydrogen compounds of the metallic elements” (Spon, London, 1965). 3. A. CALKA, Appl. Phys. Lett. 59 (1991) 1568. 4. A. CALKA and J . S . WILLIAMS, Mater. Sci. Forum 88–90 (1992) 787. 5. D. A. SMALL, G. R. MACKAY and R. A. DUNLAP, J. Alloys and Compounds, submitted. 6. H. ZHANG and E. H. KISI, J. Phys. Condens, Matter 9 (1997) L185. 7. Y. CHEN and J . S . WILLIAMS, J. Alloys and Compounds 217 (1995) 181. 8. Idem., Mater. Sci. Forum 225–227 (1996) 881. |
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Rhodium (Chief Bee) 06-13-04 17:20 No 513172 |
Almost rated as incomprehensible | |||||||
Could you please edit the typography of the article for clarity? It is very hard to read when you cut/paste a whole article without removing any trash characters, no tables edited, not dividing it into paragraphs - and last but not least posting it with hard line breaks at 60 columns??? The Hive - Clandestine Chemists Without Borders |
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