Thermal conductivity measurements of copper-coated metal hydrides (LaNi5, Ca0.6Mm0.4Ni5, and LaNi4.75Al0.25) for use in metal hydride hydrogen compression systems

This study was performed to supplement the limited data on metal hydrides by experimentally determining the thermal conductivity of various metal hydride powder pellets that underwent a copper coating process. Three different metal hydride powders were tested (LaNi5, Ca0.6Mm0.4Ni5, and LaNi4.75Al0.25) for their thermal conductivity, with variations in testing parameters, and with copper coating processes that varied from 30 to 60 s A testing apparatus was specifically designed for this experiment, and the study reported thermal conductivity values of 3–6 W/m-K.