Crystal Chemistry of Perovskite-Type Hydride NaMgH3: Implications for Hydrogen Storage

Abstract

The crystal structure, lattice dynamics, and local metal-hydrogen bonding of the perovskite hydride NaMgH3 were investigated using combined neutron powder diffraction, neutron vibrational spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations. NaMgH3 crystallizes in the orthorhombic GdFeO3-type perovskite structure (Pnma) with a - b + a - octahedral tilting in the temperature range of 4 to 370 K. In contrast with previous structure studies, the refined Mg-H lengths and H-Mg-H angles indicate that the MgH6 octahedra maintain a near ideal configuration, which is corroborated by bond valence methods and our DFT calculations, and is consistent with perovskite oxides with similar tolerance factor values. The temperature dependences of the lattice distortion, octahedral tilting angle, and atomic displacement of H are also consistent with the recently observed high H mobility at elevated temperature. The stability and dynamics of NaMgH3 are discussed and rationalized in terms of the details of our observed perovskite structure. Further experiments reveal that its perovskite crystal structure and associated rapid hydrogen motion can be used to improve the slow hydrogenation kinetics of some strongly bound light-metal-hydride systems such as MgH2 and possibly to design new alloy hydrides with desirable hydrogen-storage properties.