A Study of Hydrogen-Induced Metal Atom Rearrangement

Metal atom rearrangement has been shown to take place under the influence of hydrogen-induced atomic diffusion (HIAD) in initially homogeneous fee palladiumalloys by electron microprobe analysis, optical microscopy, mechanical property tests and hydrogen isotherms. HIAD takes place in palladium alloys at moderate to elevated temperatures leading to phase segregation under conditions where segregation does not normally occur, i.e., in the absence of H over the time scale of the experiments. From these results, it is confirmed that dissolved hydrogen plays a dual role in some of these alloys, i.e. it catalyzes metal atom diffusion. This research demonstrates the potential utility of employing H-induced changes for phase diagram determination of Pd alloys and possibly for other alloy system.