On Hydriding Uranium-Surrogate Aluminides

The process whereby hydrogen gas is applied to coax the separation of a hydride-forming component from a hydride-resistant component could not be immediately demonstrated for ZrAl₃, a surrogate material representing the chemical likeness of UAl_x. The colored patina, in addition to SEM-EDS data, suggests the interior metal is being protected by an outer oxide layer. If this hypothesis is true, higher temperature hydriding, longer hold times, and extra care taken to filter or purge oxygen from the system may lead to successful bulk hydriding of the material. Further experimentation with other surrogate intermetallics (such as titanium aluminide and gadolinium aluminide) will examine the importance the identity of a particular component has on its reactivity. Hydriding 90Ti-6Al-4V demonstrated that the presence of aluminum in an alloy does not necessarily prevent the uptake of hydrogen. Ternary compounds remain a secondary interest to the project, but lessons learned from the successful hydrogen absorption will inform other strategies to encourage the result in binary compounds.