Electrochemical hydrogen storage in ZrCrNiPdx alloys

The consumption of rechargeable batteries at worldwide level has increased constantly in the last years, mainly due to the use of portable devices such as cellular phones, digital cameras, computers, music and video reproducers, etc. Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) is a rechargeable battery system widely used in these devices, also including the most of electrical and hybrid vehicles (EV and HEV). The study of hydride forming alloys is fundamental for its use as negative electrode component in NiMH batteries. In previous works, the electrocatalytic effect of Pd element addition to the electrode, in powder form and by means of electroless technique, has been studied. In this work, AB2-type alloys are studied, in which Pd is incorporated to the structure by re-melting inside an arc furnace. The base alloy composition is ZrCrNi, and the composition of the elaborated compounds is ZrCrNiPdx (x = 0.095 and 0.19). The effect of the composition modification on these materials on properties such as electrochemical discharge capacity, activation and high rate dischargeability (HRD) is analyzed.