Development of Environmental Cell and its Application to Hydrogen Storage Materials

High-resolution and “environmental cell” microscopy were applied for surveying the reaction of hydrides in Vanadium and Magnesium based alloys, which are candidate for hydrogen storage materials of advanced hydrogen energy systems. For clarify the hydrogenation process, in-situ experiment was carried out by using 200 kV TEM equipped with a newly developed environmental cell, which is enable to observe transmitted image and electron-diffraction under gas reaction under hydrogen environment of 0.1 MPa at room temperature. In case of Vanadium, bending fringe was created under hydrogen-gas of 0.1 MPa, which means that hydrogen reaction is not so quick in this case, and the local stress due to the hydrogen solution caused the fringes. In case of Magnesium, the gas reacted with the powders and showed the swelling, where the surface steps with several ten nm become to more straight, and also SADP showed the formation of MgH2. In-situ experiment for hydrogenation reaction by using the environmental cell has started recently, therefore the precise studies will be continued, as well as its improvement, especially in the transparence films.