STRUCTURE, MORPHOLOGY AND HYDROGEN STORAGE PROPERTIES OF TI-MN ALLOY SYNTHESIZED BY MECHANICAL ALLOYING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Ti-Mn alloy compounds with the composition TiMn₂, Ti_0.97Zr_0.019Mn_1.5Cr_0.57 and Ti_0.7875Zr_0.2625Mn_0.8Cr_1.2 were synthesised by mechanical alloying technique. An amorphous Ti-Mn alloy was formed when the starting reagents were mechanical alloying for 40 h. The corresponding crystalline phase TiMn was formed when the amorphous alloy was annealed at 800°C. The addition of a process control agent (Toluene) leads to the formation of a carbide phase (TiC) in the samples. The presence of impurities, carbide (TiC) and oxide (TiO) phases resulted a decrease in C14 laves phase wt.% in the synthesised samples. Only 37.24, 31.5 and 32.81 wt.% C14 phase were formed in TiMn₂, Ti_0.97Zr_0.019Mn_1.5Cr_0.57 and Ti_0.7875Zr_0.2625Mn_0.8Cr_1.2 respectively. The result also showed that the theoretical value of 1.9 hydrogen wt.% could not be reached by these samples.