Only 37.5% of the interstitial sites in the intermetallic hydride ZrV<sub>2</sub>H<sub>x</sub> can be occupied by hydrogen as a result of the short-range correlations avoiding direct next H-H interaction. We present inelastic neutron scattering experiments showing non-expected scattering at low-energy transfer. The analysis of the inelastic neutron scattering spectra reveals that these structures originate from by hydrogen vibrations confined by neighboring hydrogens, partially at distances as short as 1.6 Å. This is an experimental demonstration of the violation of Switendick’s criterion, which predicts the minimal possible hydrogen-hydrogen distance at around 2.1Å. We use DFT modeling to determine the nature of these sites and compare with experimental data.

Violation of the Switendick criterion in metal hydrides evidenced by inelastic neutron scattering

2019 Spring National Meeting

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