Synthesis of TiFe Hydrogen Absorbing Alloys Prepared by Mechanical Alloying and SPS Treatment

Abstract

This study aims to clarify the influence of the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method on structural morphology, mechanical properties and also functional characteristics, such as hydrogen absorbing properties, for titanium-iron intermetallic compounds. We could synthesize B2-TiFe phase using mechanical alloying (MA) during 3 h and SPS treatment of 5 min at 500–1000 °C, which was confirmed by XRD and Electron Probe Microanalyzer (EPMA) measurements. In addition, the synthesized TiFe intermetallic compound has been found to absorb hydrogen with high kinetics in both high pressure Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Pressure-Composition-Temperature (PCT) measurements. Therefore, we have successfully developed TiFe alloy in bulk form from initial raw powders by using a combination of short period mechanical alloying and SPS heat treatment. This combined route enhances the potential of the SPS method to synthesize new materials.

Keywords

• titanium iron
• intermetallic compounds
• hydrogen storage materials
• mechanical alloying
• spark plasma sintering
• high pressure DSC measurement