The Effect of Toluene Solution on the Hydrogen Absorption of the Mg-Ti Alloy Prepared by Synthetic Alloying

The synthesis and characterization of the Mg–Ti alloy have been carried out through a mechanical alloying technique under toluene solution. The Mg and Ti powders are milled for 10, 20, and 30 h in a high energy ball mill. The milled alloys are then hydrided at a temperature of 300 o C in order to investigate the possibility used for hydrogen storage materials. The refinement analyses of the x-ray diffraction patterns show that mechanical alloying of the Mg–Ti powders under toluene solution results in the formation of the TiH 2 and Mg 2 Ti phases. Quantitative analyses indicate that the mass fractions of the TiH 2 and Mg 2 Ti phases are 62.90 % and 30.60 %, while the value for Mg and Ti amount to 2.6 wt% and 1.25 wt%. On hydriding at a temperature of 300 o C, the milled powders are transformed into Mg 2 TiH 4 , TiH 2 and γ-MgH 2 phases with the mass fractions of 25.48 wt%, 64.0 wt%, and 10.52 wt%, respectively. Microstructure analyses show that before milling the shape of particle is mostly a ball shape, after 30 h of milling the shape of particles changes into polygonal shape, and upon hydriding the shape of particles changes from a polygonal shape into an irregular one. The final composition of the specimen after hydriding exhibits that Mg-Ti alloy can be promoted as a hydrogen storage material. Received: 27 January 2009; Revised: 19 November 2009; Accepted: 24 November 2009