The Preparation Of Al-Ga-In-Sn Quaternary Alloy For Hydrogen Production

With the industrial pollution is increasing, the fossil fuels is in constant shortagesand the demand for fossil fuels is rising, the whole world is looking for economicaland efficient alternative energy sources to fill the gap left by energy supply. In recentyears, a large number of alternative energy sources (nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal,etc.) has begun to replace petroleum for on-grid applications, none of thesealternatives seem capable of a new energy like petroleum as convenient storage,transportation, and energy supply. Off-grid applications which replace the petroleumrequire that there must develop a new energy of following characteristics: Capable ofmass production, convenient and safe storage and transportation, high energy densityand energy supply process without generate pollutants.Hydrogen is a recognized clean energy, it is non-toxic, the releasing heat is greatwhen burned and does not produce any pollutants. Currently mainly hinder thepromotion of the use of hydrogen is its storage and transportation problems. Gaseousand liquid hydrogen storage lead to high transportation costs, hydrogen storagematerials are also facing the problems of low hydrogen storage and harsh conditionsof hydrogen desorption and so on. So, if you want a large-scale promotion ofhydrogen, it is necessary to solve or avoid the bottleneck of hydrogen storage andtransportationThe method that gallium indium tin alloy reacts with water for hydrogengeneration use the high chemical activity of aluminum. Al encounters water at roomtemperature and generates a dense layer of oxide film to prevent its further reactionwith water, so to cover up its activity. There are two methods to damage the oxidefilm, one is to ball mill the powder of aluminum to the nanometer level, which reactswith water violently to release hydrogen. Another is to make alloy of aluminum and alow melting point metal, during the reaction process, the low melting point metal canprevent the formation of oxide film to ensure the reaction continuing. In this experiment, Al,Ga,In,Sn were melted in metal melting furnace and forpouring molding at room temperature to make quaternary alloy plate. X-raydiffraction patterns analysed, the alloy mainly showed characteristic peaks ofaluminum intermetallic compounds In3Sn and InSn4are related to the amount of In,Sn in raw materials.SEM images showed that there were a lot of curves and cracks onthe surface of annealed samples, these defects and cracks promoted the reaction ofalloy with water. Because of different densities and melting point in the components,there was a obvious composition segregation in the interior of the alloy, compositionsegregation was improved after the annealing process. During the experiment, Al ofthe liquid eutectic moved to the surface of eutectic and reacted with water, howeverthe eutectic dissolved the aluminum around until the reaction was completed,aluminum can be completely consumed in theory.DSC image showed that the liquidphase was appeared in the alloy at about12℃, This temperature was also the lowesttemperature that ensured the reaction occur. By draining gas gathering method，thecollected hydrogen gas was recorded. We found that hydrogen production rates wereup to97%in several prepared kinds of alloy samples and the fastest production rate ofhydrogen was up to478ml/min. By controlling the annealing process and thehydrolysis temperature of the alloy, hydrolysis rate of the alloy, that the time ofhydrogen production, can be controlled. The purpose of this alloy was an alternativeto petroleum off-grid applications, thus there was a broad prospect in energy for fieldoperations and submarine underwater force. Considering the condition of the water inthe actual environment, the effect on the alloy properties of some ions in water wasstudied.