M. Sridharan, J. Rodriguez-Viejo, A. F. Lopeandía, F. Pi, M. Chacon, M. T. Clavaguera-Mora, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain; J. Casado, MATGAS R&D Center, Bellaterra, Spain; F. J. Muñoz, Institut de Microelectronica de Barcelona, CNM-CSIC, Bellaterra, Spain
Nanocrystalline Mg-based thin film samples for hydrogen sorption studies have been synthesized by electron beam evaporation using a thin-film combinatorial approach. Multicompositional films formed by ternary or quaternary libraries are build using additions of Fe, Ti, Ni, and/or Pd to enhance absorption/desorption kinetics and prevent Mg oxidation. The metallic libraries are deposited on 4” Si wafers previously microfabricated to host 64 independent microcalorimeters. We show the use of thin-film microcalorimetry as a high throughput screening technique to measure the heats of reaction and analyze the hydriding/dehydriding kinetics in the search of suitable hydride compounds. Temperature Desorption Spectrometry is used as a complementary technique. Influence of composition and grain size on the hydrogen storage characteristics and the cycling behavior of the samples is presented and discussed.
We acknowledge financial support from Air Products through a MATGAS Project.
Combinatorial synthesis is used to prepare multicompositional thin-film Mg-based samples. The libraries are deposited on Si wafers previously microfabricated to host 64 microreactors. A high throughput calorimetric technique is employed to determine the influence of composition and grain size on the heats of reaction and the hydriding/dehydriding kinetics of the samples.
