Local structural changes in V-Ti-Cr alloy hydrides with hydrogen absorption/desorption cycling

Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Sashida, Sho*; Otomo, Toshiya*; Oshita, Hidetoshi*; Honda, Takashi*; Hawai, Takafumi*; Saito, Hiraku*; Ito, Shinichi*; Yokoo, Tetsuya*; Sakaki, Koji*; Kim, H.*; Nakamura, Yumiko*; Machida, Akihiko*; Matsumura, Daiju   ; Sawiski, W. A.*

Low-vanadium-concentration alloys have low durability, and their hydrogen absorption and desorption amounts decrease by 20% after 100 cycles. In this study, we conducted reverse Monte Carlo modeling on X-ray diffraction patterns and neutron pair distribution functions of the hydrogen-absorbed and desorbed samples of a VTiCr alloy to analyze the variations in the local structure. The local structure surrounding the hydrogen atom in the hydrogen-absorbed phase exhibited minimal changes. In contrast, hydrogen occupied both tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the hydrogen-desorbed phase almost equally during the early cycles; however, the amount of hydrogen occupying the tetrahedral sites increased with the number of cycles.