An amorphous alloy membrane without noble metals for gaseous hydrogen separation

Hydrogen-permeable membranes have a variety of industrial applications but all of the metal membranes employed in industry are made of palladium or palladium alloys. We have been looking for a new material and found that a kind of amorphous alloy, not including noble metals, can be used by itself. It is amorphous Zr36Ni64 The amorphous membrane 30 mu m thick was produced by the rapid quenching method, which was found to be tough even in a hydrogen atmosphere and permeable only to hydrogen. After exposing both sides of the membrane to reactive gas, such as hydrogen and oxygen, the membrane exhibited a practical level of permeation rate more than 1 cm(3) H-2(STP)/cm(2) min without noble metal coating. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.