Experimental study of phase composition and hydrogen absorption capacity of Ti–Fe powder alloys with increased titanium content

The main patterns of structure formation and phase composition of Fe–Ti materials promising for hydrogen storage were investigated during explosive compaction of titanium–iron powder mixtures followed by sintering of the resulting compacts at elevated temperatures. It was established that explosive compaction of Ti + Fe powder mixtures makes it possible to obtain materials consisting of titanium and iron grains with virtually zero porosity and a developed contact surface between particles, which creates favorable conditions for interphase interaction between them during subsequent heating. Heating such materials to 1100 °C with a 1-h hold results in the formation of a liquid phase and the precipitation of TiFe and Ti₂Fe intermetallic phases in the melt. After cooling, this leads to the formation of either a TiFe + Ti₂Fe structure (with Ti content of 57– 59 at. %) or a TiFe + Ti₂Fe + β-Ti (59–68 at. % Ti) The hydrogen sorption properties of the obtained materials during electrochemical hydrogenation were studied. It was shown that the presence of accompanying phases (the β-solid solution of iron in titanium and metastable Ti₂Fe intermetallic) in the structure, together with the TiFe intermetallic compound, eliminates the need for preliminary activation and leads to a significant increase in hydrogen capacity during primary hydrogenation. Materials of the Ti–Fe system with increased titanium content were found to retain their ability for reversible hydrogenation up to a titanium content of 67 at. %. The highest reversible hydrogen capacity was achieved at 64 at. % Ti and reached 2.16 wt. % H, which significantly exceeds the capacity of conventional Ti–Fe materials currently in use. The ratio of TiFe and Ti₂Fe phases in the material structure is close to 1:1.

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