Improved hydrogen storage properties of low-cost Ti–Cr–V alloys by minor alloying of Mn

Abstract

V-based BCC solid-solution alloys have been considered as promising hydrogen storage materials due to their high hydrogen storage capacity; however, the low effective hydrogen desorption capacity and high cost of pure V have limited their practical application in fuel cell vehicles or devices. Herein, a low-V TiCr1.2(V–Fe0.203)0.6 hydrogen storage alloy with a hydrogen storage capacity of 3.35 wt% has been developed by using a low-cost FeV80 as raw material. To further increase the effective hydrogen desorption capacity, cheap Mn is first used to partially substitute for Cr in FeV80-based alloy. The Mn substitution alloy achieves an effective hydrogen desorption capacity of 2.07 wt% cutting-off at 0.1 MPa with good activation performance. It is ascribed that the minor alloying of Mn increases the dehydrogenation plateau pressure and reduces the hysteresis and the enthalpy change value. The dehydrogenation enthalpy decreases from 34.84 kJ/mol to 31.51 kJ/mol. The synergistic effect of Mn and Fe increases the abundance of the C14 Laves phase, which plays a catalytic role in hydrogen absorption and desorption. The cost of TiCr1.1Mn0.1(V–Fe0.203)0.6 alloy is much lower than that of using pure V, and even lower than some AB2 alloys based on cost estimation. The results of this study would provide a reference for the application of low-cost Ti–Cr-(FeV80) alloys for hydrogen storage.