NMR studies of electronic structure and hydrogen diffusion in transition metal hydrides

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has had extensive applications for the characterization of numerous metal-hydrogen systems. Although the greatest emphasis of proton NMR has been to evaluate diffusion behavior, increasing attention has been addressed upon the correlation of proton Knight shifts and the conduction electron contributions to proton spin-lattice relaxation times to the electronic structure properties of the hydride. The general principles of NMR, that pertain to the usual situations for most transition metal hydrides, will be briefly reviewed. Several specific examples from some recent research will be discussed in greater detail. In particular, the roles of host crystal structure and hydrogen site occupancy to hydrogen diffusion behavior are examined for the Ti1-y Cu y H x and Zr1-y Pd y H x systems. The proton hyperfine parameters in TiH x and ZrH x , as well as several related ternary hydrides, are used to qualitatively assess the character of the Fermi level electronic states. The relationship between the tetragonal distortions of the Ti and Zr dihydrides and a solid-state Jahn-Teller mechanism will also be examined.