Hydrogen absorption properties of Mg-Ni alloys prepared by bulk mechanical alloying

The thermodynamic properties of the hydrides of Mg2-xNi (x=0-0.5) alloys produced by bulk mechanical alloying (BMA) were determined from pressure-composition (PC) isotherms for absorption over temperatures from 623 to 423 K. The vant Hoff plot for the plateau pressures of isotherms clearly indicated the existence of high and low temperature hydrides with different entropy and enthalpy for hydride formation. It was found that both the entropy and enthalpy values for the high temperature hydride were more negative than for the low temperature hydride. The phase transition temperature was 525 K for Mg2.0Ni and decreased while increasing the value of x. This allotropic transformation was well confirmed by in-situ XRD observations from RT to 673 K under hydrogen atmosphere or in vacuum.