Study of the electrochemical permeation of hydrogen in iron

Hydrogen permeation through iron membranes of different thicknesses was studied by the electrochemical permeation technique. The membranes were charged with hydrogen by galvanostatic cathodic polarization in 0.1 M NaOH at 25 degrees C. The measured build-up and decay permeation current transient had been examined. The experimental results revealed that the diffusion apparently increases with decreasing membrane thickness. This result suggests that the hydrogen transport through membrane was mainly governed by hydrogen trapping at the trap sites present at the grain boundaries. The influence of the passive layer on the hydrogen permeation and its influence on the evaluation of diffusion and trapping characteristics were discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.