Hydrogen storage properties of MgH2 co-catalyzed by LaH3 and NbH

To improve the hydrogen storage properties of Mg-based alloys, a composite material of MgH2 + 10wt%LaH3 + 10wt%NbH was prepared by a mechanical milling method. The composite exhibited favorable hydrogen desorption properties, releasing 0.67wt% H2 within 20 min at 548 K, which was ascribed to the co-catalytic effect of LaH3 and NbH upon dehydriding of MgH2. By contrast, pure MgH2, an MgH2 + 20wt%LaH3 composite, and an MgH2 + 20wt%NbH composite only released 0.1wt%, 0.28wt%, and 0.57wt% H2, respectively, un-der the same conditions. Analyses by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy showed that the composite particle size was small. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic mapping demonstrated that La and Nb were distributed homogeneously in the matrix. Differential thermal analysis revealed that the dehydriding peak temperature of the MgH2 + 10wt%LaH3 + 10wt%NbH composite was 595.03 K, which was 94.26 K lower than that of pure MgH2. The introduction of LaH3 and NbH was beneficial to the hydrogen storage performance of MgH2.