A wet ball milling treatment of Zr-based AB2 alloys as negative electrode materials

A wet ball milling fluorination treatment was successfully developed to improve rate discharge capabilities of Zr-based AB2 alloys. In this work, treatment conditions such as constituents in the treating solution, ball milling speed and time were optimized. It was found that the Ni-rich surface layer formed through the Ni2+ reduction by alloy component elements played an important role in the initial activation property. The size of alloy powder particles can be easily adjusted by changing the ball milling speed and time. Although a small size of alloy powder particle is beneficial for quick kinetics, excessive pulverization resulted in a decreased capacity at low discharge rates.