Abstract
A new hydrogen storage composite containing NaBH4 and a 3d transition metal fluoride, 3NaBH4/ScF3, was synthesized via ball milling. The composite shows no reaction during milling and its dehydriding process can be divided into three steps upon heating: (i) partial substitution of H- by F- in NaBH4 to form NaBH x F4-x at the early stage, releasing about 0.19 wt% of hydrogen; (ii) formations of Na3ScF6, NaBF4 and ScB2 through the reaction between NaBH4 and ScF3, with 2.52 wt% of hydrogen release and a dehydriding activation energy of 162.67 kJ mol-1 H2; (iii) further reaction of residual NaBH4 and Na3ScF6 to form NaF, B and ScB2, with a dehydriding activation energy of 169.37 kJ mol-1 H2. The total hydrogen release of the composite reaches 5.54 wt% at 530 °C. The complete dehydrided composite cannot be rehydrogenated while the products after the second dehydriding step can be hydrogenated with an absorption activation energy of 44.58 kJ mol-1 H2. These results demonstrate that by adding 3d transition metal fluorides into NaBH4, a partial reversibility in NaBH4 can be achieved.