Hydrogen permeability of a barium-aluminoborosilicate glass—A methodical approach

Abstract The H 2 effusion from H 2 saturated glass powders, H 2 permeation through the wall of blown glass bulbs, and H 2 permeation through the wall of glass capillaries were applied to evaluate the permeability of hydrogen gas in a barium-aluminoborosilicate (BABS) glass. To validate these methods, two commercial glasses (vitreous silica and borosilicate) were used as a reference. Permeation values obtained from the different experiments agreed within a factor of 3 or less. The H 2 permeability of BABS glass at temperatures close to ambient was found to be at least 3 orders of magnitude below that of borosilicate and silica glasses. The powder method, which requires minimal sample preparation efforts, turned out to provide easy access to the measurement of H 2 permeability of glasses down to P = 3.9 × 10 − 21 mol s − 1 Pa − 1 m − 1 .