International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The reactive ball milling technique was applied to fabricate the Mg-based composite with graphite additives. The sorption/desorption kinetics of the composites were investigated under isothermal conditions. The best hydrogen sorption/desorption kinetics was attained for the magnesium-carbon composite synthesized using the low surface area graphite powder as an active additive. This sample is characterised by the best kinetics performance compared to other composites. It releases 4.2 wt.% of hydrogen at 270 ºC within ~18 min and uptakes 4.6 wt/.% of hydrogen for ~130 min at 200 ºC.

The MAX-phase Ti3AlC2 was synthesized by sintering method. The study of sorption properties of the sample was carried out under conditions continuous heating. It was established that desorption of hydrogen begins at a temperature of ~ 210 °С. After complete desorption, the sample was re-heated in an atmosphere of hydrogen. It was found that Mg-5 wt% Ti3AlC2 composite begins absorb hydrogen at a temperature of ~ 76 °С. As a result of cycling, the temperature of desorption has shifted towards lower values ~ 186 °C.

The development of ecological and efficient vehicles powered by hydrogen or electricity is one of the priorities of the automotive industry at the moment. These new propulsion systems should come as a replacement for the internal combustion engines, which use gasoline or diesel fuel and therefore produce toxic emissions. One of the problems, that hydrogen powered vehicles face, is hydrogen storage and that is the main topic of our paper Conventional technologies for hydrogen storage, like high pressure and cryogenic reservoirs, have many drawbacks in terms of compactness, mass (weight), efficiency and safety. In order to get over these problems, there have been many researches throughout the years in effort to develop new, commercially available technologies. The most advanced storage technologies today, are tanks filled with metal hydrides which absorb hydrogen by forming chemical bonds with it, and tanks filled with large contact surface materials that are able to adsorb hydrogen. In this paper we will present the requirements that these solutions have to fulfill, their current level of development and the expectations for future improvement and usage.

The paper studies the results of investigation of VN_x thin films obtained by the ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) technique in a specially designed experimental test-bench. The data on the electron microscopic examination of the nanoporous structure of the films and the measurements of their electrophysical and absorption/desorption characteristics are reported and discussed. The results make possible the application of nanoporous VN_x thin films as promising material for use as the hydrogen storage.