A new material for hydrogen storage; ScAl0.8Mg0.2

A novel aluminium rich alloy for hydrogen storage has been discovered, ScAl0.8Mg0.2, which has very promising properties regarding hydrogen storage capacity, kinetics and stability towards air oxidation in comparison to hydrogen absorption in state-of-the-art intermetallic compounds. The absorption of hydrogen was found to be very fast, even without adding any catalyst, and reversible. The discovered alloy crystallizes in a CsCl-type structure, but decomposes to ScH2 and Al(Mg) during hydrogen absorption. Detailed analysis of the hydrogen absorption in ScAl0.8Mg0.2 has been performed using in situ synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction, neutron powder diffraction and quantum mechanical calculations. The results from theory and experiments are in good agreement with each other. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.