4 ms·

What about hydrogen embrittlement?

• dredmorbius 7y ago
  I cannot speak directly the process described, but hydrogen embrittlement is an effect of exposure of finished metals to hydrogen gas where molecular hydrogen penetrates the metal walls (H2 is a very small and light molecule with a sort of ambiguous electropotential property) and disrupts the metalic structure. Presumably use in production would avoid this, possibly through oxydising the hydrogen at some point. I'd like to read a more technical metalurgical description though, and am well out of my depth here. Update: The process Bloomberg describe may be related to the concept of "hydrogen attack", in which hot, high-temperature hydrogen decarburises (reduces/removes carbon in) steel by combining with it to form methane, with the resulting gas then trapped in the metal matrix itself. It's not clear if/how this process might function in steelmaking itself, though part of that involves decarburisation through the injection of oxygen to the blast furnace. See: https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-high-temperature-hydrogen-attack-htha-hot-hydrogen-attack https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-...