Effect of ZrH2 on electrochemical hydrogen storage properties of Ti1.4V0.6Ni quasicrystal

•ZrH2 has a catalytic effect on the electrochemical properties of quasicrystalline.•The porous structure may improve the electrocatalytic activity of Ni/MH battery.•The results of HRD indicate that the ZrH2 plays an important role in improving kinetic properties.

The structure and electrochemical storage characteristics of the Ti1.4V0.6Ni + xZrH2 (x = 5, 10 and 15 wt.%) mixture powders, which synthesized by melt-spinning technique and subsequent mechanical ball-milling, are studied at ambient temperature. The XRD shows that the Ti1.4V0.6Ni alloy contains icosahedral quasicrystal phase (I-phase), V-based solid solution phase with BCC structure and face centered cubic (FCC) phase with Ti2Ni-type structure. After adding ZrH2, we find that NiZr phase and ZrH2 phase presence in the XRD of composite materials. In the equation, x is equal to 10 wt.%, and 317.5 mAh/g is the maximum discharge capacity at the first cycle. For another, the materials without the ZrH2 are pale when they compare with the composite materials which contain the ZrH2 in high-rate dischargeability (HRD) and cycle stability.