3.1. Transition Metals Catalysts
Among various additives for improving Mg-based materials, TM catalysts have been intensively investigated. Interestingly, most of the transition metals and their compounds are found to be effective as both hydrogenation and dehydrogenation catalysts. In general, 1–5 at.% addition of TM catalyst leads to dramatic improvement while the hydrogen storage capacity is not sacrificed significantly. Research efforts have been directed to investigate the effectiveness of various TM-based catalysts. compiles the reported results from Ti-based additive-enhanced MgH2 systems as well as corresponding synthetic approaches and kinetic behaviors.
Table 4. Hydrogen storage properties of Mg with various types of Ti-based catalysts.
Early work by Liang et al.
[57] evaluated the catalytic effects of 3d-TM elements (Ti, V, Mn, Fe, and Ni) on the reaction kinetics of ball-milled catalyzed MgH
2 (see ). The MgH
2-Ti composite showed superior hydrogen desorption/absorption kinetics, exhibiting the best desorption kinetics at 573 K, followed in order by V, Fe, Ni, and Mn. The activation energies (E
a) of MgH
2-Ti, MgH
2-V, MgH
2-Mn, MgH
2-Fe, and MgH
2-Ni are calculated to be 71.1 kJ/mol, 62.3 kJ/mol, 104.6 kJ/mol, 67.6 kJ/mol, and 88.1 kJ/mol, respectively, which are significantly reduced compared to that of the ball-milled pure MgH
2 (120 kJ/mol). It was indicated that the TM catalysts could drastically improve the kinetic properties of MgH
2, among which Ti-catalyzed MgH
2 shows superior performance. Rizo-Acosta et al.
[58] compared hydrogenation properties of MgH
2 with the addition of early transition metals (Sc, Y, Ti, Zr, V, and Nb). As shown in a,b, their results indicated that full reactions finished within less than 120 min in all cases and the hydrogen absorption rate increased along the sequence Y < V < Ti < Nb < Sc < Zr. However, an apparent degradation was observed when the cycling number increases. Interestingly, this evolution is less pronounced in the Ti-doped system, as shown in c, which was attributed to the lattice mismatch between Mg and TiH
2 hydride that limits Mg grain growth. Among all cases, MgH
2-TiH
2 nanocomposite presented the best cycling properties with a reversible capacity of 4.8 wt% after 20 cycles and the reaction time arbitrarily limited to 15 min.
Figure 6. Hydrogen desorption curves ((
a), desorption pressure of 0.015 MPa, 573 K) and absorption curves ((
b), absorption pressure is 1.0 MPa, 302 K) of Mg–Tm composites. (Reproduced with permission from ref.
[57]. Copyright 1999 Elsevier).
Figure 7. (
a) Hydrogen uptake curves of 95Mg-5ETM powder mixtures during reactive ball milling synthesis; (
b) the corresponding absorption rates (derivative curves of a); and (
c) hydrogen sorption curves at 573 K of MgH
2-ETMH
x NCs for different sorption sweeps. (Reproduced from ref.
[58]. Copyright 2019 RSC).
Zhou et al.
[90] prepared 49 additive-doped MgH
2 samples by ultra-high-energy-high-pressure ball milling, in order to conduct a comprehensive survey on a wide range of additives and corresponding dehydrogenation temperatures of the catalyzed MgH
2. The plot of the Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) dehydrogenation temperatures is shown in , indicating that the additives containing the IV-B and V-B group elements are the most effective catalysts while the VII-B (Mn), VIII-B (Fe, Co, and Ni) groups show moderate catalytic effects. Besides, Ti and its compounds are more effective compared to those catalysts based on heavier elements (Zr, ZrH
2, ZrO
2, and Ta) in the same periodic group.
Figure 8. Effect of various additives on dehydrogenation temperatures of MgH
2. (Reprinted with permission from ref.
[90]. Copyright 2015 Elsevier).
Cui et al.
[91] synthesized micro-sized Mg particles coated with nano-sized TM catalyst, showing that the nano-coating of TM on the Mg/MgH
2 surface is more effective than co-ball-milling of Mg with TMs. The authors also suggested that the catalytic improvement on dehydrogenation kinetics can be ranked as Mg-Ti, Mg-Nb, Mg-Ni, Mg-V, Mg-Co, and Mg-Mo, and the hydrogenation kinetics is in a sequence of Mg-Ni, Mg-Nb, Mg-Ti, Mg-V, Mg-Co, and Mg-Mo.
It has been recognized that early transition metals (ETM) belong to the group of most effective catalysts. Despite some discrepancies in reported data, Ti-based catalysts, involving not only elemental Ti but also Ti hydrides, oxides, halides, and intermetallic compounds have shown great benefits in improving the hydrogen storage properties of MgH2. In-depth investigations of Ti-based catalysts are also beneficial for understanding the catalysis mechanism for the Mg-H2 system.