Development of Poison Resistant Palladium Alloys for Hydrogen Processing (Year-End Report)

This project successfully established SRNL synthetic capabilities for palladium binary and ternary alloys. These alloys were composed of elements that were hoped to give the material resistance to the poisoning effects of common hydrogen permeability poisons such as carbon monoxide and sulfur. Several experimental and operational difficulties were encountered and overcome during the first year of this project. The method established uses melting in a tube furnace at ~1700 °C to alloy the elements, followed by flattening and rolling the metal into thin foils. These foils were then characterized by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, x-ray diffraction, and hydrogen absorption/desorption isotherm measurements.