Stability of AB5-type hydrogen storage alloys

In this paper, we deduced an empirical equation for predicting the stabilities of the hydrides of AB5-type compounds with the consideration of the effects of geometrical factor and electric factor. The theoretical curves derived from this equation are in good agreement with the test results of La1−xCaxNi5, Ml1−xCaxNi5 and La1−xCexNi5 compounds. With this model, we can easily interpret the phenomenon that the initial partial substitution of R by Ca in R1−xCaxNi5 (R is rare earth metal) compounds cause an increase of hydrogen desorption pressure to a maximum value, whereas in the range of larger Ca content x the hydrogen desorption pressure decreases with increasing x.