Patent ID: 7175721

Claim:
A method for producing a Cr—Ti—V hydrogen storage alloy utilizing thermit process, metal elements in said Cr—Ti—V hydrogen storage alloy consisting essentially of Cr, V, Al, Ti and a rare earth metal selected from the group consisting of La, Ce, and misch metal, and said alloy having a body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure, said method comprising: material preparation step (A) of providing an alloy material ( 1 ) comprising a Cr oxide, a V oxide, and a reducing agent Al, and an alloy material ( 2 ) comprising Ti; material introduction step (B) of placing said alloy materials in a crucible for thermit reduction so that the alloy material ( 1 ) is placed above the alloy material ( 2 ); metal melting step (C) of igniting the alloy material ( 1 ) placed in the crucible in step (B) for thermit reaction and melting all metal elements contained in the alloy materials with heat of the thermit reaction of the alloy material ( 1 ) to obtain an alloy melt wherein its metal elements consist essentially of Cr, V, Al, and Ti; step (D) of making said alloy melt obtained in step (C) into an alloy; and step (E) of melting said alloy obtained in step (D) with a rare earth metal selected from the group consisting of La, Ce, and misch metal in an amount of not less than 0.2 at % of said alloy to obtain an alloy melt, deoxidizing said alloy melt to lower its oxygen content to not higher than 0.1 wt %, and cooling and solidifying said deoxidized alloy melt to obtain a Cr—Ti—V hydrogen storage alloy.