Hydrogen release from mixtures of lithium borohydride and lithium amide: A phase diagram study

We recently reported the synthesis of a new quaternary hydride in the lithium-boron-nitrogen-hydrogen quaternary phase diagram with the approximate composition LiB0.33N0.67H2.67 having a theoretical hydrogen content of 11.9 wt %. This new compound forms by the reaction of appropriate amounts of lithium amide (LiNH2) and lithium borohydride (LiBH4) and releases greater than 10 wt % hydrogen when heated. A small amount of ammonia, 2-3 mol % of the generated gas, is also released. We now report a study of hydrogen and ammonia release from the series of reactant mixtures (LiNH2),(LiBH4)(1-x), where x = 0.667 corresponds to the composition LiB0.33N0.67H2.67. We measured hydrogen and ammonia release amounts as a function of composition and found that maximum hydrogen and minimum ammonia release do occur for x = 0.667. We also present evidence for an additional new quaternary phase and for two possibly metastable phases in this system.