Reduction and unusual recovery in the reversible hydrogen storage capacity of V1−xTix during hydrogen cycling

• Reduction rates of hydrogen storage capacity of V0.8Ti0.2 and V0.5Ti0.5 are similar.
• At low temperatures, cycled V0.8Ti0.2 absorbs H as much as it did at the first cycle.
• After a low temperature test, some of the H capacity of V0.8Ti0.2 was recovered.

The effect of the vanadium content on the cyclic stability of V–Ti binary alloys was investigated. V1−xTix, x = 0.2 and 0.5 samples were hydrogenated and dehydrogenated at 410 K and 553 K respectively, for more than 100 times. During hydrogen cycling, reduction in the reversible hydrogen storage capacity was clearly observed from both samples. No prominent V-effect was found. In fact, the reduction rates of two samples were similar; both samples showed a ∼25% reduction in the reversible hydrogen storage capacity after 100 cycles. In addition, the shape of the pressure–composition-isotherm (PCT) curves was significantly altered over the testing cycle period; the absorption and desorption plateaus got markedly inclined and the hysteresis became evidently smaller. We found that even after the hydrogen storage capacity of V1−xTix was significantly reduced, at low enough temperature V1−xTix was able to absorb hydrogen as much as it did at the first cycle. Furthermore, the reversible hydrogen storage capacity of V0.8Ti0.2 at 410 K was recovered to a certain degree after hydrogenating the sample at low temperatures.