Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China 23(2013) 2307−2311
Preparation of LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
alloys and hydrogen storage properties
Jian-bo TAN
1
, Xiao-qin ZENG
1,2
, Jian-xin ZOU
1
, Xiao-mei WU
1
, Wen-jiang DING
1
1.
Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Magnesium Materials and Applications,
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China;
2. State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Received 2 July 2012; accepted 28 September 2012
Abstract: The LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
(x=0, 0.3, 0.5) compounds were prepared by the method of levitation melting and a subsequent heat
treatment at 1073 K for 10 h. XRD analysis shows that the obtained LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
alloys consist of a single phase with the structure
of cubic SnMgCu
4
(AuBe
5
type). The hydrogen absorption/desorption properties of LaMgNi
4
were investigated by PCI measurement
at various temperatures (T=373, 398, 423 K) and the results show that the maximum absorbed hydrogen capacity reaches 1.45%
(5.79H/M) under a hydrogen pressure of 4.3 MPa at 373 K. The XRD patterns during absorbing procedure at 373 K indicate the
phase structure changing from cubic (α-LaMgNi
4
) to orthorhombic (β-LaMgNi
4
H
3.41
) and after hydrogenation finally back to cubic
(γ-LaMgNi
4
H
4.87
), and a partial desorption was also observed under this condition. With increasing temperature, a slight decrease of
the absorbed hydrogen content was observed and the number of plateaus reduces from two to one, but the hydrogen absorption
kinetics improves. The electrochemical properties of the LaMgNi
4-x
Co
x
were measured by simulated battery test, which shows that
the discharge capacity of the alloys significantly improves with the increase of Co content.
Key words: hydrogen storage alloy; electrochemical properties; LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
1 Introduction
Hydrogen storage alloy has aroused great interest in
view of its potential as a new energy storage material.
During the last years, magnesium based alloys showed
large potential for hydrogen storage applications due to
their high hydrogen capacity and low costs [1,2], but
because of the high temperature of dehydrogenation and
poor kinetics, the applications of these alloys are still
limited [3,4]. Recently, a lot of investigations have been
done on the RE−Mg−Ni (RE=rare earth) system [5−8],
and it has been shown that the ternary compounds
RE
1−x
Mg
x
Ni
2
based on Laves structure are new
promising in hydrogen-absorbing capacity and
electrochemical properties [9−12].
In previous works, BOBET et al [13] reported that
LaMgNi
4
compound absorbs 3.8H/M at room
temperature but no desorption has been observed even at
temperature up to 473 K under primary vacuum.
Nevertheless CHOTARD et al [14] reported that
LaMgNi
4
H
4.85
formed at a pressure of more than 2 MPa
and a subsequent decrease of hydrogen pressure to
ambient conditions led to hydrogen desorption of
1.5H/M hydrogen at 373 K. WANG et al [15] also
reported about electrochemical properties of LaMgNi
4
that the discharge capacity reaches 400 mA·h/g which is
much higher than that of the commercial AB
5
alloys (330
mA·h/g).
To the best of our knowledge, there are neither
related investigations on the reversible properties of
LaMgNi
4
hydrogen absorption/desorption at different
temperatures, nor complete pressure-composition
isotherm (PCI) curves about the compound available.
Also a lot of contradictory conclusions were made
whether LaMgNi
4
can desorb hydrogen or not. For these
reasons, the compounds LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
(x=0, 0.3, 0.5)
were synthesized by levitation melting first and then the
thermodynamic and kinetic hydrogen storage properties
of LaMgNi
4
were investigated systematically at different
temperatures. Finally, the effects of Co addition on the
electrochemical properties of LaMgNi
4−x
Co
x
by partial
Foundation item: Projects (10JC407700, 11ZR1417600) supported by the Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai, China; Project (12ZZ017)
supported by the Shanghai Education Commission, China
Corresponding author: Xiao-qin ZENG; Tel: +86-21-54742301; Fax: +86-21-34203730; E-mail: xqzeng@sjtu.edu.cn
DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(13)62733-8