The laser engineered net shaping (LENS®) process is shown here as an alternative to melting, casting, and powder metallurgy for manufacturing iron aluminides. This technique was found to allow for the production of FeAl and Fe₃Al phases from mixtures of elemental iron and aluminum powders. The in situ synthesis reduces the manufacturing cost and enhances the manufacturing efficiency due to the control of the chemical and phase composition of the deposited layers. The research was carried out on samples with different chemical compositions that were deposited on the intermetallic substrates that were produced by powder metallurgy. The obtained samples with the desired phase composition illustrated that LENS® technology can be successfully applied to alloys synthesis.

La_1-xCe_xNi₅ alloys (x = 0, 0.09, 0.25 and 0.5) were investigated in terms of their structures, phase contents, hydrogen storage properties and microhardness. It was confirmed that a cerium addition to the reference (LaNi₅) alloy caused structural changes such as lattice shrinkage and, as a result, changed both the absorption and desorption pressures and the enthalpies of formation and decomposition. The alloy with the highest cerium content was found to possess a two-phase structure, probably as a result of nonequilibrium cooling conditions during its manufacturing process. The microhardness was found to increase to some extent with the cerium content and decrease for samples with the highest cerium content.

The Mg-Li binary system is characterized by the presence of α-Mg(Li) and β-Li(Mg) phases, where magnesium exists in ordered and disordered forms that may affect the hydrogenation properties of magnesium. Therefore, the hydrogenation properties of an AZ31 alloy modified by the addition of 4.0 wt.%, 7.5 wt.% and 15.0 wt.% lithium were studied. The morphology (scanning electron microscopy (SEM)), structure, phase composition (X-ray diffraction (XRD)) and hydrogenation properties (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)) of AZ31 with various lithium contents were investigated. It was found that the susceptibility of magnesium in the form of α-Mg(Li) to hydrogenation was higher than that for the magnesium occupying a disordered position in β-Li(Mg) solid solutions. Magnesium hydride was obtained as a result of hydrogenation of the AZ31 alloy that was modified with 4.0 wt.%, 7.5 wt.% and 15.0 wt.% additions of lithium, and was characterized by high hydrogen desorption activation energies of 250, 187 and 224 kJ/mol, respectively.