Hydrogen-absorbing alloys with a large capacity for a new energy carrier

In order to apply hydrogen-absorbing alloy to a new energy carrier such as a hydrogen storage tank or a Ni–MH battery, a drastic increase in hydrogen capacity of the alloy is required. For years, intermetallic compounds or single-phase alloys have been studied as hydrogen-absorbing alloys. On the contrary, we have proposed a new approach to the alloy design related to multi-phase. Through this approach, we developed a new BCC alloy consisting of the microstructure that has a large hydrogen capacity and a good desorbing property. The hydrogen storage capacity of the newly developed alloy was over twice as that of conventional alloys. Further, we investigated the activating properties, these also being important for practical use, and we clarified that the activating properties and reaction rate of the BCC alloy were improved by the effect of the coexisting intermetallics phase. We applied this alloy to a hydrogen-storage tank of a prototype fuel-cell vehicle.