Resolving hydrogen atoms at metal-metal hydride interfaces

Abstract

Hydrogen as a fuel can be stored safely with high volumetric density in metals. It can, however, also be detrimental to metals causing embrittlement. Understanding fundamental behavior of hydrogen at atomic scale is key to improve the properties of metal-metal hydride systems. However, currently, there is no robust technique capable of visualizing hydrogen atoms. Here, we demonstrate that hydrogen atoms can be imaged unprecedentedly with integrated differential phase contrast, a recently developed technique performed in a scanning transmission electron microscope. Images of the titanium-titanium monohydride interface reveal remarkable stability of the hydride phase, originating from the interplay between compressive stress and interfacial coherence. We also uncovered, thirty years after three models were proposed, which one describes the position of the hydrogen atoms with respect to the interface. Our work enables novel research on hydrides and is extendable to all materials containing light and heavy elements, including oxides, nitrides, carbides and borides.

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Nanoscale Phonon Spectroscopy Reveals Emergent Interface Vibrational Structure of Superlattices
• Experimental demonstration of an electrostatic orbital angular momentum sorter for electrons
• Stabilization of phase-pure rhombohedral HfZrO4 in Pulsed Laser Deposited thin films
• Formation and Microwave Losses of Hydrides in Superconducting Niobium Thin Films Resulting from Fluoride Chemical Processing
• Structural modulation in potassium birnessite single crystals
• Real-time imaging of atomic potentials in 2D materials with 30 keV electrons
• Microstructural characteristics, atomic-scale features, and growth mechanisms of deuterides (hydrides) in hafnium
• Unlocking nanoscale microstructural detail in aluminium alloys through differential phase contrast segmentation in STEM