Novel metal-hydride materials and technologies: Recent advances and further prospects

We present the review of joint works between the Physicomechanical Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the University of Birmingham on investigations of fundamental and applied aspects of the development of new intermetallic hydrides carried out in 1992-1997. Most attention is paid to the results of the following investigations: first experimental observations of the appearance of "anomalously bound" hydrogen in NdFeB permanent magnets during their brittle fracture in hydrogen environments; the use of hydrogen vibrodecrepitation in the synthesis of materials with advanced properties; new advanced hydrogen absorbers, their structure and magnetic properties; the application of the hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination process to alloys of rare-earth metals and zirconium as hydrogen storages and permanent-magnet materials. process to alloys of rare-each metals and zirconium as hydrogen storages and permanent-magnet materials.