Enhanced Hydrogen Separation in Multilayered Ni-Zr Thin-Film

Hydrogen separation devices are attracting increasing interest as potential devices for the industrial production of hydrogen. In particular, metal thin films are promising because they can satisfy the requirements of a typical hydrogen-purification process. Palladium alloys are the only metals that satisfy all these requirements; however, palladium is prohibitively expensive. Therefore, the development of new thin alloy films by a minimal addition of Pd or the development of non-Pd-based thin film alloy becomes increasingly important. We have been interested in the outstanding features of amorphous alloys, which are superior to crystalline alloys in terms of, for example, mechanical properties and excellent immunity from corrosion. In this study, an amorphous multilayered Ni-Zr alloy thin film was prepared by a sputtering technique. Hydrogen permeation properties through those alloy thin films were examined. Moreover, hydrogen solubility and diffusivity were also measured in order to discuss the mechanism for hydrogen permeation. The existing Pd-based metal alloy's permeable membrane and characteristics were comparatively analyzed by measuring microstructure, hydrogen transmittance and mechanical strength, etc. of the manufactured permeable membrane.