Structures and Electrochemical Performances of As-spun RE-Mg-Ni-Mn-based Alloys Applied to Ni-MH Battery

The La-Mg-Ni-Mn-based AB_2-type La_（1-x）Ce_xMgNi_（3.5）Mn_（0.5）（x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4） alloys were fabricated by melt spinning technology. The effects of Ce content on the structures and electrochemical hydrogen storage performances of the alloys were studied systematically. The XRD and SEM analyses proved that the experimental alloys consist of a major phase LaMgNi_4 and a secondary phase LaNi_5. The variation of Ce content causes an obvious change in the phase abundance of the alloys without changing the phase composition. Namely, with the increase of Ce content, the LaMgNi_4 phase augments and the LaNi_5 phase declines. The lattice constants and cell volumes of the alloys clearly shrink with increasing Ce content. Moreover, the Ce substitution for La results in the grains of the alloys clearly refined. The electrochemical tests showed that the substitution of Ce for La obviously improves the cycle stability of the as-spun alloys. The analyses on the capacity degradation mechanism demonstrate that the improvement can be attributed to the ameliorated anti-corrosion and antioxidation ability originating from substituting partial La with Ce. The as-spun alloys exhibit excellent activation capability, reaching the maximum discharge capacities just at the first cycling without any activation treatment. The substitution of Ce for La evidently improves the discharge potential characteristics of the as-spun alloys. The discharge capacity of the alloys first increases and then decreases with growing Ce content. Furthermore, a similar trend also exists in the electrochemical kinetics of the alloys, including the high rate discharge ability（HRD）, hydrogen diffusion coefficient（D）, limiting current density（IL） and charge transfer rate.

Structures and electrochemical performances of RE-Mg-Ni-Mn-based alloys prepared by casting and melt spinning

La-Mg-Ni-Mn-based AB2-type La（1–x）CexMgNi（3.5）Mn（0.5）（x=0–0.4） alloys were prepared by melt spinning technology. The detections of X-ray diffraction（XRD） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM） indicated that the experimental alloys consisted of a major phase LaMgNi4 and a secondary phase LaNi5. With spinning rate growing, the abundance of LaMgNi4 phase increased and that of LaNi5 phase decreased. Moreover, with the melt spinning rate increasing, both the lattice constants and cell volumes increased, and further accelerated the grains refinement of the alloys. The electrochemical tests showed that the as-spun alloys possessed excellent capability of activation, achieving the maximum discharge capacities just at the first cycling without any activation needed. As for the as-spun alloys, its discharge potential characteristics could be improved obviously by adopting the technology of melt spinning. In addition, the melt spinning raised electrochemical cycle stability of the alloys, the main reason was that the melt spinning enhanced the anti-pulverization ability of the alloys. With spinning rate increasing, the discharge capacity of the alloys presented a tendency to increase firstly then decrease. Moreover, the electrochemical kinetics of the alloys showed the same trend under fixed condition.