Palladium Metal Membranes for Hydrogen purification with Titanium as an Intermediate layer

Palladium Metal Membranes for Hydrogen purification with Titanium as an Intermediate layer

Krishnamurthy, G.

Bottger, A.J. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering

2016-11-30

Palladium (Pd) metal membranes are used for the production and effective storage of high purity hydrogen. To overcome the crack and de-lamination of Pd membranes at room temperature during several hydrogen loading and de-loading cycles, a Titanium (Ti) of very small thickness of less than 10 nm is introduced as an intermediate layer between the palladium film and an oxidized Si wafer substrate. The objective of the project is to study the thin film growth of Ti and Pd films deposited for different titanium thickness at different argon sputtering pressures over oxidized Si wafer substrate. The surface roughness analysis of titanium and palladium films with its corresponding AFM images is done by Gwyddion software which shows the initial deposition and growth of films for corresponding film thicknesses. Introducing titanium reduces the surface roughness of palladium and enhances the hydrogen flux through palladium films. Texture and stress measurements of the films from XRD also accounts for the growth of the films on the substrate. The hydrogen loading and de-loading process carried out for Pd and Ti films resulted in an elimination of the crack and de-lamination of the palladium film from the substrate with titanium acting as a good adhesion layer.

thin films
hydrogen storage
Ti adhesive layer
AFM
Pd/Ti Ultra-thin film
X-ray Diffraction

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:99a9d4f8-a71c-4b28-b158-4559fa387488

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Krishnamurthy, G.