Dehydrogenation Properties of Magnesium Hydride Loaded with Fe, Fe-C, and Fe-Mg Additives

D Pukazhselvan; Narendar Nasani; Tao Yang; Igor Bdikin; Andrei V Kovalevsky; Duncan P Fagg

doi:10.1002/cphc.201601078

Dehydrogenation Properties of Magnesium Hydride Loaded with Fe, Fe-C, and Fe-Mg Additives

Chemphyschem. 2017 Feb 2;18(3):287-291. doi: 10.1002/cphc.201601078. Epub 2016 Dec 30.

Authors

D Pukazhselvan¹, Narendar Nasani¹, Tao Yang¹, Igor Bdikin¹, Andrei V Kovalevsky², Duncan P Fagg¹

Affiliations

¹ Nanoengineering Research Group, Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
² CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, Department of Materials and Ceramic Engineering, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.

PMID: 27860105
DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201601078

Abstract

This study highlights that Fe additives offer better catalytic properties than carbon, Fe-C (iron carbide/carbon composites), and Fe-Mg (Mg₂ FeH₆ ) additives for the low-temperature dehydrogenation of magnesium hydride. The in situ X-ray diffraction measurements prove the formation of a Mg₂ FeH₆ phase in iron additive loaded MgH₂ . Nonetheless, differential scanning calorimetry data suggest that this Mg₂ FeH₆ phase does not have any influence on dehydrogenation properties of MgH₂ . On the other hand, the composite system Mg₂ FeH₆ /MgH₂ shows significantly improved dehydrogenation properties even in absence of further additives. It is suggested that the improved system performance of Fe loaded MgH₂ is attributed to restrictions on crystal growth of MgH₂ and the catalytic behavior of Fe nanoparticles, rather than any intrinsic catalytic properties offered by the formed mixed metal phase Mg₂ FeH₆ .

Keywords: Fe-carbon composites; X-ray diffraction; catalysis; dehydrogenation; magnesium hydride.