Preparation and hydrogen storage properties of Mg₂Ni intermetallic nanoparticles

In this work we investigated the hydrogen storage properties of stoichiometric Mg2Ni intermetallic nanoparticles produced from Mg and Ni nanoparticles. The mean size of the Mg2Ni particles is about 30–50 nm and the lattice constants of the Mg2Ni compound are a = 5.22 Å, c = 13.29 Å. The Mg2Ni compound showed excellent hydrogen storage properties without activation. It can absorb 2.77, 2.93 and 3.03 wt% hydrogen at 523, 573 and 623 K respectively. After one simple activation process, the obtained Mg2Ni absorbed 1.74, 2.07, 2.31 and 2.82 wt% hydrogen at 293, 348, 426 and 493 K respectively. The absorption and desorption plateau hydrogen pressures are about 2.5 and 0.8 bar at 523 K, 5.9 and 3.4 bar at 573 K and 12.7 and 9.7 bar at 623 K. The resulting van't Hoff equation is log(P/bar) = −3464/T+6.541 and the formation enthalpy (ΔH) and entropy (ΔS) for the Mg2NiH4 are −66.32 kJ/mol H2 and −125.3 J K−1/mol H2.