In situ neutron diffraction studies of chemical hydrides

FUEL 76

William B. Yelon, yelonw@umr.edu1, William J. James, wjames@umr.edu1, Jinbo Yang, jinbo@umr.edu1, and Qingsheng Cai, qc9f2@mizzou.edu2. (1) Materials Research Center/Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Rolla, 1870 Miner Circle, Rolla, MO 65409, (2) Physics Department, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211
The neutron powder diffractometer at the University of Missouri Research Reactor is ideally suited for in-situ studies of hydrogen absorption and desorption in chemical hydrides. It makes use of a position sensitive detector that allows data to be collected over a 20° angular span in a few minutes. We have constructed a specialized furnace to allow measurements in controlled atmosphere and even under high pressure hydrogen. Because the sample diameters are small, absorption and incoherent scattering are minimized relative to the coherent scattering, allowing studies to be performed on non-deuterated samples and samples that contain natural boron. This paper will report on our initial work on alanates, tetrahydroborides and imides. These results have confirmed earlier results, and in the case of LiNH2, have clarified the correct model and yielded more reasonable bond lengths than previously reported.
 

Progress in Computational and Experimental Studies of Materials for Hydrogen Storage
8:25 AM-11:30 AM, Monday, 11 September 2006 Palace -- Mendocino Room, Oral

Division of Fuel Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006