Materials science of Mg-Ni-based new hydrides

One of the advantageous functional properties of Mg alloys (or compounds) is to exhibit the reversible hydriding reaction. In this paper, we present our systematic studies regarding the relationship between nanometer- or atomistic-scale structures and the specific hydriding properties of the Mg-Ni binary system, such as(1) nanostructured (n)-Mg₂Ni, (2) a mixture of n-Mg₂Ni and amorphous (a)-MgNi,(3) pure a-MgNi, and(4) n-MgNi₂. Further studies on(5) an a-MgNi-based system for clarifying the effect of the short-range ordering on the structural and hydriding properties and(6) a MgNi₂-based system for synthesizing the new Laves phase structure are also presented. The materials science of Mg-Ni-based new hydrides will provide indispensable knowledge for practically developing the Mg alloys as hydrogen-storage materials. Received: 14 August 2000 / Accepted: 6 November 2000 / Published online: 9 February 2001