Magnesium Hydride Formation within Carbon Aerogel

Paskevicius, Mark and Tian, Hu-Yong and Sheppard, Drew A. and Webb, Colin J. and Pitt, Mark P. and Gray, Evan MacA. and Kirby, Nigel M. and Buckley, Craig E. 2011. Magnesium Hydride Formation within Carbon Aerogel. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 115: pp. 1757-1766.

Source Title

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI

10.1021/jp1100768

ISSN

1932-7447

School

Department of Imaging and Applied Physics

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6077

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Magnesium hydride nanoparticles were synthesized within a carbon aerogel (CA) scaffold using a dibutylmagnesium precursor. The synthesis reaction was tracked using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to analyze the structural evolution during MgH2 formation. The CA/MgH2 composite was also investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to provide a better representation of the physical system. The CA has a large quantity of 2 nm pores as shown by nitrogen adsorption data. Both SAXS and TEM investigations confirm that MgH2 does form within the 2 nm pores but XRD proves that there is also a significant quantity of larger MgH2 particles within the system. Variations between hydrogen desorption isotherms from the CA/MgH2 composite and bulk MgH2 are detected that are indicative of changes in the decomposition properties of the small fraction of 2 nm MgH2 nanoparticles within the CA/MgH2 composite, changes which match theoretical predictions.