Vanadium alloy membranes for high hydrogen permeability and suppressed hydrogen embrittlement

The structural properties and hydrogen permeation characteristics of ternary vanadium-iron-aluminum (V-Fe-Al) alloy were investigated. To achieve not only high hydrogen permeability but also strong resistance to hydrogen embrittlement, the alloy composition was modulated to show high hydrogen diffusivity but reduced hydrogen solubility. We demonstrated that matching the lattice constant to the value of pure V by co-alloying lattice-contracting and lattice-expanding elements was quite effective in maintaining high hydrogen diffusivity of pure V. (C) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.