Efficient synthesis of an aluminum amidoborane ammoniate

Yang, J. and Beaumont, P. and Humphries, T. and Jensen, C. and Li, X. 2015. Efficient synthesis of an aluminum amidoborane ammoniate. Energies. 8 (9): pp. 9107-9116.

Source Title

Energies

DOI

10.3390/en8099107

School

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Remarks

This open access article is distributed under the Creative Commons license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/7897

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

A novel species of metal amidoborane ammoniate, [Al(NH2BH3)6 3-][Al(NH3)6 3+] has been successfully synthesized in up to 95% via the one-step reaction of AlH3·OEt2 with liquid NH3BH3·nNH3 (n = 1~6) at 0 °C. This solution based reaction method provides an alternative pathway to the traditional mechano-chemical ball milling methods, avoiding possible decomposition. MAS 27Al NMR spectroscopy confirms the formulation of the compound as an Al(NH2BH3)6 3- complex anion and an Al(NH3)6 3+ cation. Initial dehydrogenation studies of this aluminum based M-N-B-H compound demonstrate that hydrogen is released at temperatures as low as 65 °C, totaling ~8.6 equivalents of H2 (10.3 wt %) upon heating to 105 °C. This method of synthesis offers a promising route towards the large scale production of metal amidoborane ammoniate moieties.