Simulating non-ideal AB5 Metal Hydride Pressure-Concentration- Temperature Isotherms in MATLAB

Hydride-forming metal isotherms are complex due to the inherent multi-dimensional pressure-concentration-temperature dependencies. Hydrogen adsorbs to the surface of the hydride forming metal, then dissociating and diffusing into the metal. So doing boding with the metal, a further increase in pressure causes the hydride to undergo a change from low-pressure hydrides to high-pressure hydrides. Naturally, desorption is considered a reverse of the mechanism. These unique phenomena combined pose a challenge to modelling non-ideal gas-metal isotherms with hydrogen concentration as a function of pressure and temperature. This article reports the simulation of non-ideal hydride-forming metals, focusing on AB5-type hydride-forming metals. This was done as a numerical simulation in MATLAB, using a non-ideal gas-metal isotherm model after which the simulations were experimentally validated. The semi-empirical non-ideal model requires numerical methods to solve, making a simulation key for the widespread use of the model. The numerical simulation produced can predict pressure-concentration-temperature isotherms with high accuracy.