SYNTHESIS OF METAL HYDRIDES BY MECHANICAL ALLOYING IN AN ATTRITOR MILL: FY07 STATUS REPORT (open access)

SYNTHESIS OF METAL HYDRIDES BY MECHANICAL ALLOYING IN AN ATTRITOR MILL: FY07 STATUS REPORT

The objective of this task was to demonstrate that metal hydrides could be produced by mechanical alloying in the quantities needed to support the tritium production facilities at the Savannah River Site. The objective for the FY07 portion of this task was to demonstrate the production of Zr-Fe getter materials by mechanical alloying and begin to optimize the milling parameters. Three starting compositions (ratios of elemental Zr and Fe powders) were selected and attritor milled under argon for times of 8 to 60 hours. Hexane and liquid nitrogen were used as process control agents. In general, milling times of at least 24 hours were required to form the desired Zr{sub 2}Fe and Zr{sub 3}Fe phases, although a considerable amount of unalloyed Zr and Fe remained. Milling in liquid nitrogen does not appear to provide any advantages over milling in hexane, particularly due to the formation of ZrN after longer milling times. Carbides of Zr formed during some of the milling experiments in hexane. Formation of carbides during milling appears to be much less of an issue than formation of nitrides, although some of the phases that were not able to be identified in the XRD results may also be carbides. …
Date: November 8, 2007
Creator: Fox, K
System: The UNT Digital Library