Water activation of Mg2Ni for hydrogen uptake

Though the alloy, Mg,Ni, has desirable properties for storage of hydrogen, its application has been hindered by the difficulty of its initial activati on for hydrogen uptake. A number of methods have been reported for activati on of Mg,Ni. While some of these methods utilize aqueous solutions, there h as been no report of activation with pure water. It has been demonstrated i n this laboratory that magnesium nickel alloy can be activated for hydrogen uptake by treatment with water for as little as 2 min. Increasing the trea tment time with water increases the amount of hydrogen absorbed and increas es the longevity of the activation. Thermal data, scanning electron microsc opic data, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic data are presented in a di scussion of the activation of magnesium nickel alloy with water, (C) 1999 I nternational Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.