Interaction of aluminum alloys with pressurized hydrogen affecting permeability: H-induced lattice expansion versus H-induced defects

Abstract

Aluminum alloys are common materials for liners of composite hydrogen storage tanks. The behavior of a liner exposed to pressurized hydrogen and its permeability determine the properties of a liner. In this study, a combination of different hydrogen characterization techniques, i.e., thermal desorption spectroscopy, hydrogen microprint technique, scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy, and electron diffraction, is used to investigate hydrogen permeability and the corresponding microstructure. The permeability of hydrogen in Al-Mg alloy was determined by the competition between elastic and plastic deformations as a result of the pressure of the gaseous hydrogen.