Effect of heat treatment on the crystal structure, microstructure, hydrogen storage properties and thermal stability of V68Ti20Cr12alloy prepared by arc-melting was studied in this work. It was found that both the as-cast and annealed(973 K/72 h) V68Ti20Cr12alloys consisted of a single body-centered cubic(bcc) phase. After heat treatment, the hydrogen absorption/desorption kinetic characteristics of the as-cast alloy was improved greatly due to the homogeneous composition and perfect structure. The mechanism of hydrogen absorption/desorption process in the as-cast and annealed alloys was further investigated according to the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami(JMA) equation. The hydrogen absorption process of the as-cast and annealed alloys would be controlled by the one-dimensional diffusion process, while the hydrogen desorption process in the as-cast and annealed alloys was dominated by the geometrical contraction model. The pressure-composition-temperature(PCT) measurements show that the plateau pressure of the annealed alloy becomes comparatively flat. Furthermore, the activation energies of the dehydrogenation in the as-cast and annealed alloys were calculated using the Kissinger method, indicating that heat treatment is a very beneficial way to improve hydrogen absorption/desorption kinetics of the alloy.
