A high throughput methodology for the synthesis and screening of hydrogen storage materials has been developed. Synthesis of these materials is achieved through the combination of a high throughput physical deposition method and a hydrogen source. A screening methodology has been developed which is based on temperature programmed desorption from an array of micro mechanical electrical systems (MEMS) hotplates. The heating characteristics of these hotplates have been determined under both vacuum and ambient conditions. To achieve this, the infra red and electrical properties of the devices are characterised. Temperature programmed desorption results for the magnesium hybride thin film system are presented. The hydrogen storage characteristics of this material are determined, including information about the peak temperature, onset temperature, gravimetric capacity and activation energy of the decomposition process. The magnesium nickel binary system was selected to demonstrate the capabilities of this novel technique, since the system is well characterised in the literature. Screening results for this material are presented, and found to compare well to the literature values. Peak temperatures are found to exhibit the expected trend, and the gravimetric capacities are found to agree with both the existing literature, and the modelled phases. The kinetics of the observed decomposition channels are also determined using this screening technique. The high throughput nature of this work enabled the determination of the effective activation energy across a wide compositional range. The effective activation energies determined are found to agree with the existing literature; in addition a non activated, catalytic decomposition process is identified. Initial results are presented on the Mg-B, B-Ti and Mg-Ti binary systems. These are indicative of the application of this methodology to synthesise and characterise a wider range of potential hydrogen storage materials.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:494758 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Smith, Duncan Clifford Alan |
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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