No abstract

Magnesium hydride (MgH(2)) is an attractive candidate for solid-state hydrogen storage applications. To improve the kinetics and thermodynamic properties of MgH(2) during dehydrogenation-rehydrogenation cycles, a nanostructured MgH(2)-0.1TiH(2) material system prepared by ultrahigh-energy-high-pressure mechanical milling was investigated. High-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning TEM analysis showed that the grain size of the milled MgH(2)-0.1TiH(2) powder is approximately 5-10 nm with uniform distributions of TiH(2) among MgH(2) particles. Pressure-composition-temperature (PCT) analysis demonstrated that both the nanosize and the addition of TiH(2) contributed to the significant improvement of the kinetics of dehydrogenation and hydrogenation compared to commercial MgH(2). More importantly, PCT cycle analysis demonstrated that the MgH(2)-0.1TiH(2) material system showed excellent cycle stability. The results also showed that the DeltaH value for the dehydrogenation of nanostructured MgH(2)-0.1TiH(2) is significantly lower than that of commercial MgH(2). However, the DeltaS value of the reaction was also lower, which results in minimum net effects of the nanosize and the addition of TiH(2) on the equilibrium pressure of dehydrogenation reaction of MgH(2).

The packing density of a multi‐particle system is found to increase if the particle size distribution is extended. Results are reported for Gaussian and log‐normal size distributions using dense random packing of two sands with particle sizes of front <0.07 to 8.0 mm. Packing density is shown to be a function only of size distribution represented by a dimensionless standard deviation, and of particle shape. It is independent of particle size. Packing densities of binary mixtures of continuously distributed systems are found to depend upon the composition of the mixture, the mean‐size ratio of the components of the binary, and upon the packing density of the individual components. Maxima occur at compositions of 55 to 75% larger component, and increasing mean‐size ratios result in greater packing densities. The “increase in packing density” factor is a useful function for comparing, and setting limits to, packing densities of binary mixtures. The results should allow improved prediction and control of packing densities of many commonly encountered particle systems.