Analysis of sloping plateaux in alloys and intermetallic hydrides - I. Diagnostic features

Previous research has accounted for sloping plateaux by assuming Gaussian distributions of plateau pressures, or of the corresponding thermodynamic parameters, and then fitting the experimental degree of sloping by trial and error. In the present treatment a method is developed to utilize the experimental plateau sloping to determine the compositional distribution functions for an alloy or an intermetallic compound-hydride, A(1-x)-B-x-H where, due to inhomogeneity, x will deviate within the sample from its nominal value. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.