Microencapsulation of Hydrogen Storage Alloys

수소저장합금의 마이크로캡슐화

Although it has been well known that many metal hydrides are promising to use for hydrogen storage and other applications, some difficulties still remain. Metal hydrides, particularly in powder form, have very poor thermal conductivity. The hydrogen storage alloys degrade intrinsically or extrinsically during repeated hydriding and dehydriding. Elimination of these problems is very important in the practical applications. In order to prevent degradation and to improve the thermal conductivity, the hydrogen storage characteristics of rare-earth type alloy encapsulated with Cu or Ni by means of chemical plating have been investigated. No changes has occured in hydrogen absorption capacity and equilibrium pressure even though the alloy powder is microencapsulated. The first hydrogen absorption rate of the alloy encapsulated increased considerably comparing to uncapsulated sample. In the case of encapsulating the fine powder ($>10{\mu}m$) and subsequent compacting by $8ton/cm^2$, shape of compact is maintained regardless of hydriding and dehydriding. The degree of degradation of the alloy caused by impurity gas of CO or $O_2$ was decreased prominently by encapsulation.