Significantly improved hydrogen storage properties of NaAlH4 catalyzed by Ce-based nanoparticles

Abstract

NaAlH4, a prototypical high energy density complex hydride, possesses a favorable thermodynamics and high hydrogen storage capacity. However, the poor kinetics and degradation of cycling stability retard its practical application. To ease these problems, CeB6, CeF3 and CeO2 nanoparticles with a size of about 10 nm are synthesized by the wet-chemistry method and introduced into NaAlH4 systems as additives in this work. The results show that all of the nanoparticles are effective in improving the hydriding–dehydriding kinetics of NaAlH4, and nano-CeB6 possesses the highest catalytic activity. The rehydrogenation of dehydrogenated NaAlH4 doped with nano-CeB6 can be accomplished in less than 20 min with a high capacity of 4.9 wt%, which shows a 20% increase in capacity compared to that of chloride-doped NaAlH4. Due to the structural stability and good dispersion of nano-CeB6 and nano-CeF3, a favorable cycling stability with high capacity retention is achieved for their doped samples. Moreover, hydrogen can be released from the hydrogenated sample doped with nano-CeB6 at a temperature as low as 75 °C, fulfilling the operation temperature of a PEM fuel cell. In the nano-CeO2 doped NaAlH4 system, CeO2 is first reduced to CeH2.51. In the subsequent cycles, the formed CeH2.51 gradually transforms into Ce–Al, and simultaneously the kinetics of the doped system is further enhanced. It is believed that the utilization of Ce-based nanoparticles as catalysts would substantially improve the practical applications of NaAlH4 for hydrogen storage.