Trident™ Thermal Conductivity Application Highlight Characterizing Metal Hydrides for use in Hydrogen Storage Applications

The following application highlight addresses the measurement of metal hydrides for use in hydrogen storage applications using the Modified Transient Plane Source (MTPS). Metal hydrides have long been targeted for their efficiency and safety in hydrogen storage applications. Hydrogen absorption (charging) and release (discharging) are physiochemical, temperature-driven processes and thus require thermal management optimization to obtain desirable performance levels. The thermal conductivity of the metal hydride system is a key component to achieving this goal. The Modified Transient Plane Source (MTPS) method available on C-Therm’s Trident platform has been used to measure the thermal conductivity of metal hydrides under varying conditions (temperature, pressure, etc.). The following data compares different AB5 alloys tested at room temperature under varying pressures (up to 4 MPa).