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We report on studies of the process of cyclic hydriding–dehydriding (eight cycles) of a mechanical alloy synthesized in a ball mill by grinding powder mixture Mg + 10 wt.% TiH2 + 10 wt.% Fe in argon medium. Hydrogen-sorption properties and thermal stability of the mechanical alloy are studied employing thermodesorption spectroscopy at hydrogen pressure of 0.1 MPa. Hydrogen capacity of the mechanical alloy is determined to be 4.9 wt.%, and onset temperature of hydrogen desorption from the alloy under this study equals 220°C. Kinetics of the process of hydrogen desorption from the hydride phases of the mechanical alloy is examined. The present studies have revealed that mechanical treatment of the magnesium powder in Ar medium with both Fe and Ti additives causes a greater effect on improving the kinetics of hydrogen desorption from hydride phase MgH2 of the alloy and decreasing its thermal stability in comparison with that caused by mechanical treatment of the same powder with either Fe or Ti additives in hydrogen medium.

The electronic structure and charge states of atoms of cubic and hexagonal tantalum carbides have been studied by X-ray photoelectron (XPS) and X-ray absorption (XAS) spectroscopy. The XPS spectra of both valence and core-level electrons as well as the TaLIII XAS spectra of TaCx have been obtained over the range 0.36≤x≤0.98. In all the tantalum carbides studied charge transfer takes place from Ta to C atoms. The shifts of the Ta 4f core levels and the midpoints of the TaLIII absorption edges indicates that the effective positive charge of the Ta atoms decreases in the row TaC0.98»TaC0.36. In that sequence of compounds the main peak of the XPS valence band spectra shifts toward the Fermi level by about 0.85 eV.