In Situ Analysis of Hydrogen Mobility during Hydrogen Permeation through Nb-Based Hydrogen Permeable Membranes

The hydrogen solubility and the hydrogen permeability have been measured for Nb-based alloys in order to investigate the alloying effects on the hydrogen diffusivity during hydrogen permeation. It is found that the hydrogen solubility decreases by the addition of ruthenium, tungsten or molybdenum into niobium. The mobility for hydrogen diffusion during hydrogen permeation is estimated from the linear relationship between the normalized hydrogen flux, , and the product of the hydrogen concentration and the difference of hydrogen chemical potential, . It is found that the mobility for hydrogen diffusion during hydrogen permeation is larger for Nb-based alloys than pure niobium, especially at low temperature. The activation energy of the mobility for hydrogen diffusion decreases by the addition of ruthenium, tungsten or molybdenum into niobium.