Hydrogen storage properties of Ti0.72Zr0.28Mn1.6V0.4 alloy prepared by mechanical alloying and copper boat induction melting

In the present study, two process techniques, mechanical alloying and innovative vacuum copper boat induction melting, were used to produce Ti0.72Zr0.28Mn1.6V0.4 alloy for hydrogen storage applications. The hydrogen absorption and desorption properties of the alloy were studied. The material structure and phases were characterized by XRD and SEM. The hydrogen absorption and desorption properties of the alloy were measured by an automatically controlled Sieverts apparatus. The results showed that the samples consisted of two main phases, C14 Lave phase and V-base solid solution phase. The maximum capacity of abs/desorption was achieved at mediate temperature (150 °C). The hydrogen capacity of the induction melted samples in various temperatures was higher than that for the samples produced by mechanical alloying method. The maximum absorption capacity of the induction melted and mechanically alloyed samples were 2 and 1.2 wt%, respectively. The maximum desorption capacity of the induction melted and mechanically alloyed samples were 0.45 and 0.1 wt%, respectively.