A novel thermic process for producing V-based solid solution type hydrogenstorage alloy

The performance of a high hydrogen capacity alloy, V-16%Ti-12%Ni-1.4%Nb-0.9 6%Co-2.8%Ta, is sensitively influenced by dissolved aluminum and oxygen, bo th of which can be removed from vanadium by a refining process, but the pro cess currently used is too expensive. It is necessary to develop a process to remove these impurities at a reasonable cost. We propose a new method fo r production of the alloy. A V-15%Ni-1.8%Nb precursor with a low enough lev el of aluminum was produced by alumino-thermic reduction from a mixture of V2O5, Nb2O5 and nickel. Subsequently, a V-16%Ti-12%Ni-1.4%Nb-0.96%Co-2.8%Ta alloy was obtained by alloying the precursor and the other constituents of titanium, cobalt and tantalum, and by adding mischmetal as a reducing agen t to remove oxygen to a low enough level. It was demonstrated that, by the method described here, the vanadium-based alloy could be produced at a reas onable cost.