Properties of metal hydrides that can be determined with a DSC/GC/pressure system

Abstract

Hydrogen is gaining attention as an alternative fuel for a replacement of petroleum. Several methods exist for the storage of hydrogen, including the use of metal hydrides. The problem with metal hydrides is the energy-intensive methods used for the activation of many metal alloys like Mg2Ni in order for initial uptake of hydrogen. While trying to recreate the results of a known treatment, this laboratory discovered a much simpler treatment: treat the metal alloys with pure water. A study was done where Mg2Ni was treated in water under various conditions. Thermal data collected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and pressure data shown by transducer output (transducers coupled with the DSC instrument) showed that hydrogen gas was absorbed by the sample and hydrogen gas was released when the sample was reheated in an argon atmosphere. This work focuses on the use of DSC coupled with GC in the analysis of dehydriding samples and the sampling protocol that was utilized. During a GC analysis, it was important to determine that the gas coming off a sample was hydrogen and to show the extent that gas was being released. GC data were helpful in the comparision on how treatment time of Mg2Ni in water affected thermal data and dehydriding output. During this study, it was seen that flowing argon gas over a dehydriding sample (during a GC analysis) affected the dehydriding onset temperature. The

effect of flow rate was studied more closely. Discrepancies in onset temperature data between two types of thermal analysis instruments, DSC and thermal volumetric analysis (TV A) were also studied. Some onset temperature data from earlier studies were corrected by a method using the correction angle a, obtained from a thermogram of a melting point standard. Also, pressure data from hydriding and dehydriding analyses in the DSC can be used for hydrogen to metal ratio (H/M) plots and van't Hoff plots, respectively. van't Hoff and hydrogen to metal ratio plots were used to determine the stoichiometry of a hydride.

Notes

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Graduation Date

1996

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Hampton, Michael D.

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Chemistry

Format

PDF

Pages

111 p.

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0028690

Subjects

Arts and Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Sciences

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