Amorphous metal membranes

In the last 20 years, the research on amorphous metal alloys has led to the development of materials with selective hydrogen permeabilities that are comparable or even higher than those of palladium and palladium alloys. The most promising materials are composed of Ni, Nb, Zr, with the possible addition of Ta or Ti. The operating temperatures are found to be in the range 300–400°C, in order to avoid the crystallization that usually occurs at higher temperatures, as a multistep process. The solubility and permeability have been investigated experimentally and computational modeling for prescreening of properties in a large variety of materials have been proposed. Good correspondence has been found with experiments, where available. There are experimental and computational modeling reports available on the mechanical properties of these amorphous ribbon membranes regarding to their resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. Microstructural correlation of these ribbon membranes with the local atomic order have emerged.