“Priority 2030”: Unique Alloy Obtained in Moscow Polytech For Safe Storage of Hydrogen

Scientists of Moscow Polytech for the first time synthesized an alloy of chemically active metals using the calcium hydride method. Such powders are characterized by a high ability of absorbing and retaining hydrogen. The alloy is added to the container for transporting hydrogen, which absorbs hydrogen by dissolving it into itself. In order to bring hydrogen back into the state of gas, it is necessary, for example, to heat this alloy up to a certain temperature

“Commersant” (Merchant) Publishing House tells about the development:

The spectrum of application of the alloy is wide: in the automotive industry, metallurgy, chemical industry, nuclear power engineering. Due to the special mechanism of synthesis, the method allows obtaining various materials.

Calcium here acts as a reducing agent for most oxides of industrially important metals. For example, chromium oxides and tantalum oxide are easily reduced to pure metals by calcium. Further, they interact with each other, forming an alloy, which is used, for example, to manufacture containers for transporting hydrogen.

Production of refractory alloys of chemically active metals with the help of classic metallurgy – is a very expensive and technically complex process. The Moscow Polytech scientists develop an alternative technology – powder metallurgy, namely, the calcium hydride method. Its main advantage is application of cheap oxides as source components, and the very process of obtaining various materials – from ore to the ready-made product - takes place in one heat treatment cycle, which greatly simplifies the production chain.

“We use oxides of the materials, whose alloys we need to obtain, and with thermal processing we design the necessary composition in a powder form. Synthesized powders can significantly speed up surface reactions, for example, absorbing gas or sintering metals, if we need to get a compact blank,” - noted Sergey Yudin, PhD in technical science, associate professor, head of the project on obtaining alloys of chemically active metals by the calcium hydride method.

Within the framework of scientific work at Moscow Polytech, a high-entropy alloy was synthesized for the first time using the calcium hydride method - the material consisting of five elements, taken in equal atomic concentrations. So far, a mechanical mixture of metals and a heterogeneous alloy has been obtained. You need to come to a state when metals form a uniform alloy: only in this case, its saturation ability increases. The task is to synthesize the powder, which for every 100 grams will be able to absorb about 19 liters of hydrogen. At present, we managed to get saturation of 12 liters. 

Reference: Sergey Yudin is engaged in research within the framework of the grant competition named after P.L.Kapitsa. The competition is one of the points of realization of the strategic academic leadership program “Priority 2030”.