Synthesis, characterization and hydrogen sorption studies of mixed sodium-potassium alanate

The aim of the present investigation is to synthesize mixed sodium potassium alanate (K2NaAlH6) and to explore its hydrogen sorption characteristics. K2NaAlH6 is synthesized through ball milling of KH and NaAlH4 in the molar ratio 2:1 under hydrogen pressure of 10 bar. The temperature programmed desorption experiment shows that the synthesized K2NaAlH6 has peak desorption temperature of approximate to 352 degrees C and reveals appreciable rehydrogenation kinetics under 6 bar hydrogen pressure at 300 degrees C. The investigations are also focused on the catalytic effect of carbon nanostructures (CNS) namely, the graphene sheet (GS) and single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and titanium halides (TiCl3 and TiF3) on K2NaAlH6. In the case of graphene and SWCNT catalyzed K2NaAlH6, the peak desorption temperature gets reduced to approximate to 347 degrees C and approximate to 341 degrees C respectively. The catalytic effects of CNS and titanium halide on K2NaAlH6 are also compared in the investigation. Between the two types of catalysts, halides are found to be better than CNS and out of the two halides, TiF3 is found to be the best catalyst for hydrogen sorption in K2NaAlH6. The peak desorption temperature decreases significantly from 352 degrees C to approximate to 324 degrees C for TiF3 catalyzed K2NaAlH6. Thus, the desorption activation energy reduces drastically from 124.43 kJ/mol (synthesized K2NaAlH6) to 88.05 kJ/mol for TiF3 catalyzed K2NaAlH6. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim