Hydrogen solubility in 1:5 compounds between Y or Th and Ni or Co

There is great interest inthe•hydrogen •absorption by I :SM:N,#833 &139,5,:11 metals since hydrogen is a possible candidate for use as a 1 @DE'r.=M= ZO. §"fl 2 25 0-E 12 =03 1 future fuel and since the nature of hydrogen in metals is 1not well understood.2Recently it was found that a number of intermetallic compounds of a rare earth metal and a transition metal absorb large quantities of hydrogen gas at the ambient tgmperature under moderate pressures (-1 atm to -100 atm) with substantial change in their physical properties.3,4Among those intermetallic compounds, LaNi5 is an attractive material for hydrogen storage because of its large hydrogen holding capacity, its favorable equilibrium pressure and the rapidity with which it absorbs and releases hydrogen.Yttrium and the rare earths form similar intermetallic conIPounds with transition metals.It therefore seemed likely that the yttrium compounds.wouldbehave like their rare earth counterparts in respect to hydrogen sorptive power.Because of the lower atomic weight of Y, the yttrium MASTER