Hydrogen storage properties of flexible and porous La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.8/PVDF composite

A study on the hydrogen storage properties of flexible and porous La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.8/PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) composite was reported. In this composite, PVDF acted as a binder to connect the alloy powders and (NH4)2CO3 as a pore-forming agent to create void space. Increasing PVDF content, the hydrogen absorption kinetics of the composite gradually decreased. Increasing (NH4)2CO3 from 1% to 5%, the capacity firstly increased and then decreased. 0.08–0.13 wt% increased capacity for the composite was observed at 70 °C by comparison with the intrinsic composite (La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.8/1%PVDF). Varying temperature from 0 °C to 100 °C, 0.1–0.15 wt% increased capacity were obtained for the typical porous composite (La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.8/1%PVDF/3%(NH4)2CO3). The PVDF-assisted composite showed the flexible/solidified characteristic in hydriding/dehydriding, which maybe lowed down the oxidation of the alloy powders and preserved the void space. Finally, ∼0.1 wt% increased capacity remained after ten hydriding/dehydriding cycles.