in-situ chemistry mapping of hydrogen storage materials by neutron diffraction

Neutron diffraction was used to nondestructively study the microstructures for two hydrogen storage media systems. In the first case, sodium alanate based hydrogen storage is a vehicle-scale candidate system developed by Sandia/GM. Neutron scattering was used to determine the distribution of phases in the storage media at different hydrogen loading levels, to help understand the absorption/desorption of hydrogen in large-scale systems. This study also included a 3D neutron tomographic study of the microstructure. In the second case, tin-doped lanthanum nickel alloys have been studied at JPL for space-based applications, for which the gradual degradation of the material due to segregation and disproportionation of phases is a known problem. A regenerative process developed to restore the storage properties of these alloys was studied, using in-situ neutron diffraction to relate the microstructure to the thermodynamic simulations.