The present work reports a study of mechano-chemical synthesis (MCS) and mechano-chemical activation synthesis (MCAS) of nanostructured hydrides in the Mg-H, Mg-Al-H and Mg-B-H systems by controlled reactive mechanical alloying/milling (CRMA/CRMM) in the magneto-mill Uni-Ball-Mill 5. Regardless of the hydride systems, the morphologies of milled Mg-H, Mg-Al-H and Mg-B-H powders after a prolonged milling time can be characterized by dramatic particle size refinement and high tendency to form agglomerates. In the Mg-Al-H system, no successful synthesis of magnesium alanate has been achieved by MCS of the nanostructured magnesium alanate using four starting stoichiometric Mg-2Al mixtures. It is hypothesized that Al(Mg) solid solution in the initial stage (~10h) of CRMA and free Al(s) decomposed from solid solution as the milling time increases the initial stage inhibit the reaction to form magnesium alanate. In contrast to an unsuccessful synthesis in MCS process, a successful synthesis of the magnesium alanate and 2NaCl mixture by MCAS has been achieved. DSC and TGA analysis show that the decomposition of magnesium alanate occurs in a two-step reaction at the temperature ranges of 125-180 and 225-340°C. In the Mg-B-H system, when the Mg-2B mixture is made with the oxidized amorphous boron containing B2O3 then after a prolonged MCS time (200h), only nanometric γ- and β- magnesium hydrides are formed. In contrast, oxide-free amorphous boron in the original Mg-2B mixture prompts the formation of a resulting mixture of nanometric MgB2 and an amorphous phase containing hydrogen. Further annealing of the milled Mg-2B mixtures at ~100-400ºC under ~4-4.3 MPa of hydrogen for 20-100h does not result in the formation of ternary magnesium alanate. Alternatively, a powder mixture of 2NaBH4 and MgCl2 is used as a starting material to synthesize Mg(BH4)2 hydride. Amorphous Mg(BH4)2 phase might have been synthesized after MCAS process. However, the formation of Na(Mg)BH4 solid solution might prevent the synthesis of a large amount of Mg(BH4)2 hydride. Once the solid solution is formed, the amount of Mg will be insufficient to form a large amount of Mg(BH4)2 hydride.

The present work reports a study of mechano-chemical synthesis (MCS) and mechano-chemical activation synthesis (MCAS) of nanostructured hydrides in the Mg-H, Mg-Al-H and Mg-B-H systems by controlled reactive mechanical alloying/milling (CRMA/CRMM) in the magneto-mill Uni-Ball-Mill 5. Regardless of the hydride systems, the morphologies of milled Mg-H, Mg-Al-H and Mg-B-H powders after a prolonged milling time can be characterized by dramatic particle size refinement and high tendency to form agglomerates. In the Mg-Al-H system, no successful synthesis of magnesium alanate has been achieved by MCS of the nanostructured magnesium alanate using four starting stoichiometric Mg-2Al mixtures. It is hypothesized that Al(Mg) solid solution in the initial stage (~10h) of CRMA and free Al(s) decomposed from solid solution as the milling time increases the initial stage inhibit the reaction to form magnesium alanate. In contrast to an unsuccessful synthesis in MCS process, a successful synthesis of the magnesium alanate and 2NaCl mixture by MCAS has been achieved. DSC and TGA analysis show that the decomposition of magnesium alanate occurs in a two-step reaction at the temperature ranges of 125-180 and 225-340°C. In the Mg-B-H system, when the Mg-2B mixture is made with the oxidized amorphous boron containing B2O3 then after a prolonged MCS time (200h), only nanometric γ- and β- magnesium hydrides are formed. In contrast, oxide-free amorphous boron in the original Mg-2B mixture prompts the formation of a resulting mixture of nanometric MgB2 and an amorphous phase containing hydrogen. Further annealing of the milled Mg-2B mixtures at ~100-400ºC under ~4-4.3 MPa of hydrogen for 20-100h does not result in the formation of ternary magnesium alanate. Alternatively, a powder mixture of 2NaBH4 and MgCl2 is used as a starting material to synthesize Mg(BH4)2 hydride. Amorphous Mg(BH4)2 phase might have been synthesized after MCAS process. However, the formation of Na(Mg)BH4 solid solution might prevent the synthesis of a large amount of Mg(BH4)2 hydride. Once the solid solution is formed, the amount of Mg will be insufficient to form a large amount of Mg(BH4)2 hydride.

The design and production of efficient metal-hydrides for hydrogen storage is a long standing subject. Over the years, many different types of intermetallic hydride systems were studied and some of them came out to be operable. However, none of them meet all the storage criteria perfectly. In this study, total energies, hydrogen storage capacity and stability of AB (A = Al, Be, Cu, Fe, Ni, Sb, V and B = Ti) type intermetallics were investigated with the goal of spotting a potential hydrogen storage material. The relation between thermodynamic properties and the atomic and the electronic structure of hydrides are also pointed out. For this task, first principles pseudopotential method within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to density functional theory (DFT) was used. Calculations correctly predict experimentally determined structures except for CuTiH. Moreover, the atomic and cell parameter were found within the allowable error interval for DFT. In CuTi intermetallic, a structure having considerably lower formation energy than experimentally found mono-hydride was determined. This contradiction may be due to metastability of the experimental phase and high activation energy for the hydrogen movement in the system. It was found that AlTi and SbTi are not suitable candidates for hydrogen storage since their hydrides are too unstable. For the other intermetallic systems, the stability of the hydrides decreases in the order of VTi, CuTi, NiTi, BeTi, FeTi. For VTi, FeTi and NiTi, a change in metallic coordination around hydrogen from octahedron to tetrahedron is predicted when tetra-hydride (MTiH4) is formed. Additionally, at this composition, FeTi and NiTi have hydride structures with positive but near-zero formation energy which may be produced with appropriate alteration in chemical makeup or storage parameters. VTi is a promising intermetallic by means of storage capacity in that even VTiH6 is found to have negative formation energy but the hydrides are too stable which can be a problem during hydrogen desorption.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:15:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SubeniaM.pdf: 7084944 bytes, checksum: 1be8677e14b90365726bca93148b19d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-11 / The physical properties and the excitations spectrum in oxides and semiconductors materials are presented in this work, whose the first part presents a study on the confinement of optical phonons in artificial systems based on III-V nitrides, grown in periodic and quasiperiodic forms. The second part of this work describes the Ab initio calculations which were carried out to obtain the optoeletronic properties of Calcium Oxide (CaO) and Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) crystals. For periodic and quasi-periodic superlattices, we present some dynamical properties related to confined optical phonons (bulk and surface), obtained through simple theories, such as the dielectric continuous model, and using techniques such as the transfer-matrix method. The localization character of confined optical phonon modes, the magnitude of the bands in the spectrum and the power laws of these structures are presented as functions of the generation number of sequence. The ab initio calculations have been carried out using the CASTEP software (Cambridge Total Sequential Energy Package), and they were based on ultrasoft-like pseudopotentials and Density Functional Theory (DFT). Two di?erent geometry optimizations have been e?ectuated for CaO crystals and CaCO3 polymorphs, according to LDA (local density approximation) and GGA (generalized gradient approximation) approaches, determining several properties, e. g. lattice parameters, bond length, electrons density, energy band structures, electrons density of states, e?ective masses and optical properties, such as dielectric constant, absorption, re?ectivity, conductivity and refractive index. Those results were employed to investigate the confinement of excitons in spherical Si@CaCO3 and CaCO3@SiO2 quantum dots and in calcium carbonate nanoparticles, and were also employed in investigations of the photoluminescence spectra of CaCO3 crystal / As propriedades f?sicas e o espectro de excita??es em materiais ?xidos e semicondutores s?o apresentados neste trabalho, composto primeiramente por um estudo sobre o confinamento de fonons ?pticos em sistemas artificiais baseados em nitretos III-V, crescidos periodicamente e quasi-periodicamente. A segunda parte deste trabalho descreve c?lculos de primeiros princ?pios realizados para a obten??o de propriedades optoeletr?nicas em cristais de ?xido de C?lcio (CaO) e Carbonato de C?lcio (CaCO3). Para as super- redes peri?dicas e quasi-peri?dicas apresentamos aqui algumas propriedades din?micas relacionadas a fonons ?pticos (de volume e de superf?cie) confinados obtidos atrav?s de teorias simples como o modelo do diel?trico cont?nuo e a utiliza??o de t?cnicas como a aproxima??o da matriz transfer?ncia. O car?ter de localiza??o dos modos de fonons ?pticos confinados, a magnitude das bandas no espectro e a lei de escalas dessas estruturas como fun??o do n?mero de gera??o das sequ?ncias substitucionais s?o apresentadas. Os c?lculos ab initio foram realizados utilizando o software CASTEP (Cambridge Sequential Total Energy Package) baseados nos m?todos de pseudopotenciais tipo ultrasoft e na teoria do funcional de densidade (DFT). Foram efetuadas duas diferentes otimiza?c~oes de geometria para os cristais de CaO e para or tr?s polimorfos do CaCO3, segundo as aproxima??es LDA (aproxima??o de densidade local) e GGA (aproxima??o do gradiente generalizado), determinando prorpiedades como par?metros de rede, tamanho das liga??es entre os ?tomos, densidade de el?trons, estrutura de bandas de energia, densidade de estados eletr?nica, massas efetivas dos portadores el?tron e buraco, al?m de propriedades ?pticas como constante diel?trica, absor??o, reflectividade, condutividade e ?ndice de refra??o do cristal. Estes dados ser?o utilizados na realiza??o de estudos sobre o confinamento de excitons em pontos qu?nticos esf?ricos Si@CaCO3 e CaCO3@SiO2 e nanopart?culas ocas de car- bonato de c?lcio, e na investiga??o do espectro de luminesc?ncia do cristal de CaCO3.

L'absorption d'hydrogène dans les sites interstitiels des métaux se situe au cœur de problématiques majeures comme la fragilisation des alliages ou le stockage de l'hydrogène à des fins énergétiques. En effet, ce phénomène modifie les propriétés physico-chimiques du métal hôte et peut conduire à la formation de composés ordonnés MHy appelés hydrures. Dans ce cadre, la méthode de modélisation Calphad (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) constitue un outil pertinent pour comprendre et prédire le comportement des métaux et alliages en présence d'hydrogène. Toutefois, il n'existe pas de base de données Calphad centrée sur l'hydrogène, permettant de calculer des équilibres de phases dans des systèmes multi-constituants (ternaires, quaternaires…).Ainsi, la présente thèse est consacrée à l'étude de systèmes binaires métal-hydrogène (M-H), par une approche modélisatrice multi-échelle. Ces systèmes binaires représentent la première étape à la conception d'une telle base de données Calphad. Tout d’abord, des calculs DFT (Density Functional Theory) systématiques ont été réalisés pour 31 systèmes binaires M-H considérant 30 structures cristallographiques potentielles, soit 30 × 31 = 930 hydrures, stables ou métastables. Cette approche de criblage a permis notamment de déterminer les enthalpies de formation à 0 K, données d’entrée essentielles de la méthode Calphad. De nouveaux hydrures n'ayant jamais été observés expérimentalement ont été prédits à haute pression (TaH2, ZrH3…).Puis, des calculs de phonon dans l'approximation harmonique ont été réalisés sur les hydrures les plus stables. D’une part, ils permettent de corriger les enthalpies de formation issues de la DFT, en tenant compte de l'énergie et de l'entropie dues aux vibrations des atomes, non négligeables pour l'atome léger d'hydrogène. D’autre part, une étude à grande échelle a porté sur les modifications de l'enthalpie libre de formation résultant de la substitution de l'hydrogène par ses isotopes, dit « effet isotopique ». Des prédictions ont pu être réalisées sur la nature de cet effet en fonction de la température. De plus, pour étudier l'insertion aléatoire des atomes d'hydrogène en solution solide, nous avons utilisé des méthodes de thermodynamique statistique : CVM (Cluster Variation Method) et simulation de Monte-Carlo. Ces méthodes ont été implémentées dans des codes de calcul, appliqués aux métaux cubiques faces centrées (cfc) et cubiques centrés (cc). Les données d'entrée de ces codes sont les énergies associées aux interactions locales entre atomes plus proches voisins. Elles sont fournies par la CEM (Cluster Expansion Method) couplée à la DFT. Une étude comparée des systèmes Ni-H et Pd-H a mis en évidence les spécificités des comportements thermodynamiques des solutions solides interstitielles de chacun de ces systèmes. Par ailleurs, la pression en dihydrogène constitue un paramètre important car de nombreux hydrures ne se forment qu'à très haute pression. Afin d'améliorer la précision des modèles Calphad à pression élevée, le modèle de Lu et al. a été appliqué aux phases condensées des systèmes Ni-H, Rh-H et Mg-H. Ce modèle permet de déterminer la contribution à l'enthalpie libre du travail des forces de pression, en admettant en entrée aussi bien des calculs de phonon quasi-harmoniques que des données expérimentales. Enfin, la modélisation Calphad complète du système Ni-H a été réalisée en intégrant le modèle de Lu et al. L'enthalpie de formation calculée par DFT et l'enthalpie de mélange déterminée par CEM ont également été utilisées en données d'entrée, en complément des données expérimentales disponibles / Hydrogen absorption in the interstitial sites of metals is crucial for major issues such as alloy embrittlement or hydrogen storage for energy applications. This phenomenon modifies the physicochemical properties of the host metal and may lead to the formation of ordered MHy compounds called hydrides. Within this framework, the Calphad modeling method (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) is a relevant tool for understanding and predicting the behavior of metals and alloys in the presence of hydrogen. However, there is no Calphad database centered on hydrogen for calculating phase equilibria in multi-constituent systems (ternary, quaternary…).The present thesis proposes to use a multi-scale modeling approach to study metal-hydrogen (M-H) binary systems, which are the first step in designing such a Calphad database. First, systematic DFT (Density Functional Theory) calculations were carried out for 31 binary M-H systems considering 30 potential crystal structures, resulting in 30 × 31 = 930 hydrides, stable or metastable. This high throughput approach allowed in particular to determine the enthalpies of formation at 0 K, which represent important input data for the Calphad method. New hydrides that have never been experimentally observed could be predicted at high pressure (TaH2, ZrH3 ...).Then, phonon calculations in the harmonic approximation were performed on the most stable hydrides. They allow, on the one hand, to correct the DFT calculated enthalpies of formation by considering the energy and entropy due to the atom vibrations, which are not negligible for the light hydrogen atom. On the other hand, a large-scale study focused on the modification of the free energy of formation due to hydrogen substitution by its isotopes, known as "isotopic effect". Predictions were made on the nature of this effect as function of temperature. Moreover, the random insertion of hydrogen atoms in solid solution was studied using statistical thermodynamic methods: CVM (Cluster Variation Method) and Monte-Carlo simulation. These methods have been implemented in calculation codes, applied to face centered cubic (fcc) and body-centered cubic (bcc) metals. The input data are the interactions energies between nearest neighbor atoms. They are provided by the CEM (Cluster Expansion Method) coupled with DFT calculations. A comparative study of the Ni-H and Pd-H systems revealed the specificities of the thermodynamic behaviors of both solid interstitial solutions. Furthermore, dihydrogen pressure is an important parameter because many hydrides form only at very high pressure. To improve the Calphad model accuracy at high pressure, the model of Lu et al. was applied to the condensed phases of the Ni-H, Rh-H and Mg-H systems. This model allows to determine the contribution to the free enthalpy due to the pressure force work. The input data may be both quasi-harmonic phonon calculation results and experimental data. Finally, a comprehensive Calphad model of the Ni-H system was carried out by integrating the model of Lu et al. The DFT enthalpy of formation and the mixing enthalpy determined by CEM were used as input data, to complement the available experimental data

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:33:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:06:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Neste trabalho foi estudado as ligas La0,7-xMgx Pr0,3Al0,3Mn0,4Co0,5Ni3,8 (x = 0 a 0,7) como eletrodo negativo de baterias de níquel - hidreto metálico. A hidrogenação das ligas foi realizada com duas pressões de H2 (2 bar e 10 bar) e temperaturas (ambiente e 500°C). A capacidade de descarga das ba terias de níquel hidreto metálico foram analisadas pelo equipamento de testes elétricos ARBIN BT-4. As ligas, no estado bruto de fusão, foram analisadas por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), espectroscopia de energia dispersiva (EDS) e difração de Raios-X. Com o aumento da concentração de Mg nas ligas aumenta-se a capacidade de descarga, porém nota-se a diminuição a estabilidade cíclica das baterias. A capacidade de descarga máxima obtida foi para a liga Mg0,7Pr0,3Al0,3Mn0,4Co0,5Ni3,8 (60 mAh) e a bateria que apresentou a melhor performance foi La0,4Mg0,3Pr0,3Al0,3Mn0,4Co0,5Ni3,8 (53 mAh e 150 ciclos). A capacidade de absorção de hidrogênio diminui quando se adiciona Mg, não ocorrendo tal efeito para a liga Mg0,7Pr0,3Al0,3Mn0,4Co0,5Ni3,8. / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP