Abstract
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.
