Substantial emission of NH3 during thermal decomposition of sodium amidoborane, NaNH2BH3

Sodium amidoborane (SAB, NaNH2BH3), an ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) derivative, was recently reported as a novel solid-state hydrogen storage material. We reinvestigate its thermal decomposition using the best grade commercially available AB (98%) and technical quality (90%) substrates. We characterize evolved gases with mass and FT-IR spectroscopy and observe emission of hydrogen contaminated with significant amounts of ammonia making it undesirable for low-temperature fuel cell applications. We propose a reaction scheme which explains the evolution of NH3 from SAB.