Effect of rare earth elements on sorption characteristics of nanostructured Zr-Co sintered porous getters

This present work aims at investigating the effects of Ce, La and activation conditions on sorption characteristics of Zr-Co sintered porous getters. In order to study the effect of rare earth (RE) elements, cerium and lanthanum were added to the Zr-Co getters. Zirconium-cobalt rare earth getters were obtained using mechanical alloying process. The synthesis and activation process of the getter powder were studied by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The results showed that after an optimum mechanical alloying time and activation process, nanostructured getter powder was achieved which led to improvement of the hydrogen sorption properties of the obtained getters. It was seen that the addition of Ce and La to the Zr-Co getters reduces the activation temperature and improve the sorption capacity of the getters. It was found that the room temperature pumping properties of the getters improved with activating temperature increasing from 280 to 330 °C.