We present results of our ab initio studies of electronic and dynamic properties of ideal palladium hydride PdH and its vacancy ordered defect phase Pd3VacH4 (“Vac” - vacancy on palladium site) with L12 crystal structure found experimentally and studied theoretically. Quantum and thermodynamic properties of these hydrides, such as phonon dispersion relations and the vacancy formation enthalpies have been studied. Dynamic stability of the defect phase Pd3VacH4 with respect to different site occupation of hydrogen atoms at the equilibrium state and under pressure was analyzed. It was shown that positions of hydrogen atoms in the defect phase strongly affect its stability and may be a reason for further phase transitions in the defect phase.

In this paper we have studied from first-principles the effect of magnetism on the hydrogen-metal interaction and the binding properties of palladium with 3d-alloying atoms in the presence of vacancies induced during hydrogenation process. Our first-principles calculations were carried out by means of state of the art ab-initio method based on density functional theory and all-electron PAW-potentials. We have analyzed the changes of the atomic and electronic structures of palladium crystal induced by the presence of substitutional 3d-alloying atoms, interstitial hydrogen and structural defect (palladium vacancy). The obtained results have shown that magnetism can strongly affect the hydrogen-metal interaction in palladium based alloys. We have also demonstrated that the presence of vacancies in the palladium matrix can alter the interaction energy between hydrogen and alloying transition metal atoms.