Kinetics of the isothermal decomposition of zirconium hydride: terminal solid solubility for precipitation and dissolution

The hydrogen permeation technique in the surface-limited regime (SLR) was first used to study the isothermal decomposition of zirconium hydride. It is shown that under isothermal conditions, the hydrogen terminal solid solubility in the α-phase for hydride precipitation (TSSp) and dissolution (TSSd) differ only by 6%, in contrast to the 20-30% indicated in the available literature. It is demonstrated that even the minimum heating/cooling rate (1 C/min) used in the traditional methods of studying TSSp and TSSd is too high to exclude the effect of kinetics on the results obtained.