High catalytic activity disordered VTiZrNiCrCoMnAlSn hydrogen storage alloys for nickel–metal hydride batteries

Multielement, multiphase disordered metal hydride alloys have enabled the widespread commercialization of NiMH batteries by allowing high capacity and good kinetics while overcoming the crucial barrier of unstable oxidation/corrosion behavior to obtain long cycle life. Atomic engineering is used to promote a high concentration of active hydrogen storage sites vital for raising NiMH specific energy to 100 Wh kg−1 by utilizing metal hydride materials having in excess of 440 mAh g−1 specific capacity. New commercial applications demand fundamentally higher specific power and discharge rate kinetics. Disorder at the metal/electrolyte interface has enabled a surface oxide with metallic nickel alloy inclusions having a diameter less than 70 A embedded within the oxide, which provide exceptional catalytic activity to the metal hydride electrode surface and allowed NiMH specific power exceeding 1000 W kg−1.