Improved hydrogen storage properties of LiBH4 confined with activated charcoal by ball milling

• Published in: Rare metals 2019-04, Vol.38 (4), p.321-326
• Main Authors: Zhou, He, Wang, Xin-Hua, Liu, Hai-Zhen, Gao, Shi-Chao, Yan, Mi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Ball milling; Biomaterials; Charcoal; Chemistry and Materials Science; Dehydrogenation; Energy; Finishes; Hydrogen; Hydrogen storage; Materials Engineering; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Physical Chemistry; Properties (attributes)
• ISSN: 1001-0521; 1867-7185
• DOI: 10.1007/s12598-018-1067-1

In order to enhance the hydrogen storage properties of LiBH 4 , activated charcoal (AC) was used as the scaffold to confine LiBH 4 in this paper. Ball milling was used to prepare LiBH 4 /AC composites. Experimental results show that dehydrogenation properties of ball-milled LiBH 4 /AC (LiBH 4 /AC-BM) are greatly improved compared with that of pristine LiBH 4 , ball-milled LiBH 4 (LiBH 4 -BM) and hand-milled LiBH 4 /AC (LiBH 4 /AC-HM). The onset dehydrogenation temperature of LiBH 4 for LiBH 4 /AC-BM is around 160 °C, which is 170 °C lower than that of pristine LiBH 4 . At around 400 °C, LiBH 4 /AC-BM finishes the dehydrogenation with a hydrogen capacity of 13.6 wt%, which is approximately the theoretical dehydrogenation capacity of pure LiBH 4 (13.8 wt%), while the dehydrogenation processes for LiBH 4 -BM and LiBH 4 /AC-BM do not finish even when they were heated to 600 °C. The isothermal dehydriding measurements show that it takes only 15 min for LiBH 4 /AC-BM to reach a dehydrogenation capacity of 10.1 wt% at 350 °C, whereas the pristine LiBH 4 and the LiBH 4 /AC-HM release hydrogen less than 1 wt% under the same conditions. The dehydrogenation process and the effect of AC were discussed.