Co-catalytic effect of carbon based nanostructures and TiO2 on sorption behavior of nanocrystalline MgH2

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation is to explore the synergistic effect of TiO2–graphene nano sheets and TiO2- single wall carbon nanotubes on the sorption behaviour of MgH2. The nanocrystalline MgH2–TiO2 is synthesized by reactive ball-milling of MgH2 and TiO2 under 10 atm of hydrogen pressure. Temperature programmed desorption study reveals that the hydrogen desorption in TiO2 catalyzed MgH2 starts at ∼312 ºC. On the other hand, MgH2/TiO2 admixed with 2 wt% of SWCNT and MgH2/TiO2 admixed with 2 wt% of graphene starts to desorb hydrogen at ∼295 and ∼280 ºC respectively. The onset desorption temperature of MgH2/TiO2 is reduced by ∼17 ºC and ∼32 ºC by admixing 2 wt% of single wall carbon nanotubes and graphene nano sheets in MgH2/TiO2 respectively. © 2014 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.