THE SYNTHESIS AND HYDROGENATION BEHAVIOR OF SOME NEW COMPOSITE STORAGE MATERIALS - MG-XWT-PERCENT FETI(MN) AND LA2MG17-XWT-PERCENT-LANI5

The composite alloys La2Mg17-xwt% LaNi5 and Mg-xwt% FeTi(Mn) have been successfully synthesized and the hydriding behaviours of these materials were studied for various values of x. Both these systems have been found to possess characteristics which are superior to the individual storage systems alone. In contrast to La2Mg17, hydrogen storage capacities of 5.24wt% with 3-4 times faster kinetics have been obtained for La2Mg17-xwt% LaNi5. For Mg-40t% FeTi(Mn), the optimum storage capacity in relation to their reversible characteristic has been found to be about 3.5wt% even at ambient conditions, which is almost double the storage capacity of well-known FeTi(Mn) (approximately 1.9). In order to understand the hydrogenation behaviour and high storage capacity, structural/microstructural characteristics and chemical analyses of these composite materials were carried out employing the XRD, SEM and EDAX techniques.