Chemical vapor synthesis of Mg–Ti nanopowder mixture as a hydrogen storage material

Magnesium-based alloys are among the promising materials for hydrogen storage and fuel cell applications due to their high hydrogen contents. In this work, the hydrogen release and uptake properties of Mg/5%Ti nanopowder mixture prepared by a chemical vapor synthesis (CVS) process were investigated. Samples were made in a CVS reactor, in which reactant powders were fed into evaporator placed inside the reactor by means of specially designed powder feeders. The produced Mg/5%Ti was hydrogenated in an autoclave under 10.3 MPa pressure and 150 °C for 12 h. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that 5.2 wt% of hydrogen began to be released from 190 °C while temperature was increased at a heating rate of 5 °C/min up to 350 °C under an argon flow. This onset temperature of Mg–Ti nanopowder dehydrogenation was much lower than that of MgH2 alone, which is 381 °C. In addition, the activation energy of dehydrogenation was 104 kJ/mol, which is much smaller than that of as-received MgH2 (153 kJ/mol).