A Cautionary Tale - Palladium Loves Hydrogen - too much!

HANDLE WITH CARE - HUNGRY (AND HOT) PALLADIUM!

Working in LFH'S lab this afternoon preparing quite a large batch of experimental fuel, I began to weigh out components into a plastic beaker. First, 10 grams of Hydrogenated 20 micron Nickel powder, then 2.5 gr of LiAlH4, o.5gr of nano Li and finally, since I am interested in the effects of heterogenous catalyst activity in Ni?h systems, I added half a gram of Palladium Black. Palladium Black is 99.9% pure Palladium - micron sized. It is a 'Class A' hydrogenation catalyst. I dropped this directly onto the top of the LiAlH4/Li in the beaker powder in the beaker.

The result was almost instant combustion. I can only assume that the Palladium started Grabbing the Hydrogen from the LiAlH$ - which is an exothermic process. This extra heat dissociated more of the LiAlH4 and created even more heat. Then, within a couple of seconds things got hot enough to ignite the Hydrogen. This produced a bit of a fizz and a modest flame - rather like that which might be produced by setting fire to a box of safety matches.

Not being a stranger to the odd 'chemical event' and noticing that the beaker was starting to melt I picked up the scales complete with melting beaker and tipped the flaming mass off onto the concrete floor, where it fizzed and spluttered for a moment more. You can see 'before' and 'after' pictures below. No harm done. I opened all the doors and windows and left the place to air for a while.

But this is the moral of this tale. Never add Palladium Black to anything with a Hydrogen donor in it - like LiAlH4. II tried a second time, where this time the LiAlH4 (25%) was thoroughly mixed with the Nickel - same result.

I saw that video, strangely enough - must be almost a year ago. From memory his barbecue was fuelled by Lithium Deuteride though- same fire, 10X the price.

Mine was a little more energetic than that, Hermes, and started almost immediately - but maybe that is due to the difference between Hydrogen and Deuterium. Thanks for posting the video btw.

I understood what was happening and thought I explained it above. I personally don't seem to have any problem with nickel -as an engineer I have had a lot of contact with both solid, plating salts and powder over many years. But I know some people do so care is always important. Biberian had his problem with LiAlD4 btw, not LiAlH4 - his was a much more expensive barbecue.

I have ordered some Palladium wire. A little coil nearby might be useful.

@Abd Ul-Rahman Lomax You mention mixing in an oxygen-free environment- Biberian tried that but all that happened was everything getting red hot - no flames but not the result he was looking for.