Hydrogen Sorption Performance of Pure Magnesium during Continued Cycling

Preliminary investigations of the hydrogen absorption - desorption by commercially pure magnesium powder under continuous operation show little or no reduction in hydrogen capacity up to 70 cycles and high temperature exposure exceeding 1200 h. Absorption was studied at 260°–425°C and hydrogen pressures up to 2.0 MPa above equilibrium.

Desorption was with a few exceptions done at 400°C at hydrogen pressures below 150 kPa. For practical application the hydrogen exchange may be limited to 75–90% of the complete metal to stoichiometric hydride reaction. A change of the macroscopic structure of the powder into a highly porous, sintered agglomerate did not reduce the hydrogen capacity or the reaction rate.

Although this change in structure caused no deterioration of the cycling performance a further development may not be acceptable. For observation over a much larger number of cyclings a fully automated, triple line cycling facility permitting simultaneous testing under different conditions has been constructed.