Effect of Temperature in the Preparation of Zirconium Hydride Available to Purchase

Zirconium hydride block is an important hydrogen storage material which is used as moderator in space nuclear power reactor. The effect of temperature in the preparation of crackfree zirconium hydride was investigated in this work. The hydriding temperature curve including 3 key steps was designed based on the Zr-H binary phase diagram. The changes of hydrogen pressure with time were observed in the experiment and the hydrogen pressure dropped down when the temperature reached about 876 °C because of the β→δ phase transformation. The phase transformation step in the experiment contributed to the cracking control critically. The hydrogen content of the zirconium hydride was decided by the temperature of the last step.