EMBRITTLING EFFECTS OF HYDROGEN ON A VARIETY OF INORGANIC MATERIALS AS INDICATED BY ACOUSTIC-EMISSION

The embrittling effects of hydrogen-bearing environments which were previously shown in detail for a few selected materials, are reported here for a wide variety of inorganic solids including glasses, ceramics, single crystal minerals, rocks, refractory coatings, semiconductors, and metals. Prior work showed the hydrogen effect using several quite different techniques and environments. The measurements for the present survey were restricted to acoustic emission amplitude distributions during drilling under carbon tetrachloride (a hydrogen-free liquid environment) and under water (a source of hydrogen). It is proposed that the hydrogen effect is a universal phenomenon which affects the deformation and fracture behaviour of solids (organic materials may be exceptions). © 1979 Chapman and Hall Ltd.