| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Actinides and Rare Earths Topical Conference | Monday Sessions |
| Session AC+SS-MoM |
| Session: | Surface Science of Actinides |
| Presenter: | M.T. Brumbach, Sandia National Laboratories |
| Authors: | M.T. Brumbach, Sandia National Laboratories K.R. Zavadil, Sandia National Laboratories C.S. Snow, Sandia National Laboratories J.A. Ohlhausen, Sandia National Laboratories |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Erbium is known to effectively load with hydrogen when held at high temperature in a hydrogen atmosphere. To make the storage of hydrogen kinetically feasible, a thermal activation step is required. Activation is a routine practice, but very little is known about the physical, chemical, and/or electronic processes that occur during Activation. This work presents in situ characterization of erbium Activation using variable energy photoelectron spectroscopy at various stages of the Activation process. Modification of the passive surface oxide plays a significant role in Activation. The chemical and electronic changes observed from core-level and valence band spectra will be discussed along with corroborating ion scattering spectroscopy measurements.
§Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.