An amorphous alloy membrane without noble metals for gaseous hydrogen separation

Abstract Hydrogen-permeable membranes have a variety of industrial applications but all of the metal membranes employed in industry are made of palladium or palladium alloys. We have been looking for a new material and found that a kind of amorphous alloy, not including noble metals, can be used by itself. It is amorphous Zr 36 Ni 64 . The amorphous membrane 30 μm thick was produced by the rapid quenching method, which was found to be tough even in a hydrogen atmosphere and permeable only to hydrogen. After exposing both sides of the membrane to reactive gas, such as hydrogen and oxygen, the membrane exhibited a practical level of permeation rate more than 1 cm 3 H 2 (STP)/cm 2  min without noble metal coating.