Hydrogen absorption properties of a Zr-Al alloy ball-milled with Ni powder

The preparation of the Zr 84 wt%-Al 16 wt% non-evaporable getter alloy by means of mechanical alloying and its hydrogen absorption characteristics were investigated. Scanning electron micorscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis revealed that the mechanical ball-milling with Ni was successfully employed to coated nickel particles on the surfaces of the Zr-Al getter alloy. The resulting composite particles with pure nickel on the surface of the Zr-Al getter compound show good gettering performance and fast sorption kinetics without any activation process. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.