Discrepancy in the thermal decomposition/dehydrogenation of ammonia borane screened by thermogravimetric analysis

Abstract

Ammonia borane NH3BH3 (AB), in pristine or destabilized state, has been much investigated as a solid-state chemical hydrogen storage material. The potential of such compound for thermolytic dehydrogenation (and decomposition) can be fast and reliably screened and assessed by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis via descriptors like both the onset temperature of dehydrogenation and the overall weight loss over the temperature range 100–200 °C. However, comparisons to results reported in the open literature need to be done with caution. The objective of the present article is thus to show that the thermolytic properties of AB determined by TG analysis are much dependent on the operation conditions. We have observed that much different results are obtained by changing the analyzer, and especially the crucible (comparable to a semi-closed reactor in one case or similar to an open reactor in the second case). For example, a stable AB sample is able to suffer a weight loss of 18.4 wt% starting from 116.5 °C when a semi-closed crucible is used, versus a weight loss of 51.9 wt% starting from 91 °C with the utilization of an open crucible. Our main results are reported herein in the form of a short technical communication: it aims at sharing our experimental observations in order to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding as for the TG analyses of AB and of any kind of derivatives. The present work should help in comparing the data available in the open literature with care and, from now on, should be regarded as a key study to report comparable TG results for AB thermolytic dehydrogenation.