Boron- and Nitrogen-Based Chemical Hydrogen Storage Materials
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international journal of hydrogen energy 34 (2009) 2303–2311 Available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he Review Boron- and nitrogen-based chemical hydrogen storage materials Tetsuo Umegaki, Jun-Min Yan, Xin-Bo Zhang, Hiroshi Shioyama, Nobuhiro Kuriyama, Qiang Xu* National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-8-31 Midorigaoka, Ikeda, Osaka 563-8577, Japan article info abstract Article history: Boron- and nitrogen-based chemical hydrides are expected to be potential hydrogen Received 20 November 2008 carriers for PEM fuel cells because of their high hydrogen contents. Significant efforts have Accepted 4 January 2009 been devoted to decrease their dehydrogenation and hydrogenation temperatures and Available online 4 February 2009 enhance the reaction kinetics. This article presents an overview of the boron- and nitrogen-based compounds as hydrogen storage materials. Keywords: ª 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights Boron-based chemical hydrides reserved. Nitrogen-based chemical hydrides Hydrogen storage Dehydrogenation Hydrogenation Ammonia borane 1. Introduction in operating the system at high temperature poses an obstacle to its practical application. Chemical hydrogen Hydrogen is a globally accepted clean fuel. The use of storage materials, due to their high hydrogen contents, are hydrogen fuel cells in portable electronic devices or vehicles expected as potential hydrogen sources for fuel cells. Among requires lightweight hydrogen storage or on-board hydrogen them, boron- and nitrogen-based compounds, such as generation. For vehicular applications, the U.S. Department LiNH2–LiH and NaBH4, have attracted much attention [5–7]. of Energy (DOE) has set storage targets; the gravimetric Ammonia borane, NH3BH3, which has a hydrogen capacity (volumetric) system targets for near-ambient temperature of 19.6 wt.%, exceeding that of gasoline, has made itself an (from À40 to 85 C) and moderate pressure (less than attractive candidate for chemical hydrogen storage applica- 100 bar) are 6.0 wt.% (45 g/L) for the year 2010 and 9.0 wt.% tions. Intensive efforts have been made to enhance the (81 g/L) for 2015 [1]. Although there have been a large kinetics of the hydrogen release from this compound from number of reports on hydrogen storage materials, such as both solid and solution approaches [8–17]. Hydrazine, N2H4, metal hydrides [2] and metal organic frameworks [3], and on with the hydrogen capacity of 12.6 wt.%, is another potential on-board reforming of hydrocarbon into hydrogen [4], big hydrogen carrier. Group VIII metal-based catalysts have challenges still remain. For hydrogen storage materials, the been reported to actively enhance the decomposition of this gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen capacities must be compound to generate hydrogen at room temperature with improved, whereas for the on-board reforming, the difficulty the by-product of NH3 [18]. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ81 72 751 9562; fax: þ81 72 751 9629. E-mail address: [email protected] (Q. Xu). 0360-3199/$ – see front matter ª 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.01.002 2304 international journal of hydrogen energy 34 (2009) 2303–2311 The present review gives a brief survey of the boron- and of M(BH4)n (M ¼ Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Al, Zn, Zr, etc.; n ¼ 1–4) and the nitrogen-based chemical hydrogen storage materials. electronegativity cp of M has been systematically investigated [31,32], and it was experimentally observed that the dehydro- genation temperature of M(BH4)n synthesized by ball milling 2. Boron-based chemical hydrogen storage MCln and LiBH4 decreases with increasing the value of cp. Well- materials crystallized Mg(BH4)2 was synthesized by the metathesis reaction of MgCl2 with NaBH4 in diethyl ether and decomposes Boron-based chemical hydrogen storage materials such as to desorb approximately 13.7 wt.% when heated to 800 K [33].It borohydrides (e.g., LiBH4 and NaBH4) and ammonia borane, is still a crucial subject to decrease the dehydrogenation NH3BH3, are very promising compounds as hydrogen storage temperature of M(BH4)n. materials because of their high hydrogen capacities. However, An alternative way to generate hydrogen from borohy- practical application of these hydrogen storage materials is drides is their reaction with water, so-called hydrolysis now still a big challenge which results from kinetic and/or [6,7,34–44]. When compared to LiBH4, NaBH4 has been more thermodynamic limitations. Various approaches have been widely studied because this chemical hydride provides a safe taken to decrease the dehydrogenation and hydrogenation and low-cost practical route to produce hydrogen. NaBH4 can temperatures and to enhance the reaction rate. Some devel- be synthesized by the reaction of sodium trimethyloxybor- opments are described below. ohydride or sodium tetramethylborohydride with diborane (B2H6) [45], or by the direct synthesis of sodium, boron, and 2.1. Borohydrides hydrogen at 823–973 K in a 3–15 MPa H2 atmosphere [20]. NaBH4 is a NaCl-type crystalline material with a density of À3 Among the borohydrides, the hydrogen content for LiBH4 has 1.074 g cm [21]. From an X-ray investigation [46], it was reached a value of up to 18 wt.%. LiBH4 can be synthesized by mentioned that the sodium and boron atoms may form the reaction of ethyl lithium with diborane (B2H6) [19] or by the a body-centered tetragonal array and that the hydrogen atoms direct synthesis from the lithium and boron at 823–973 K in could lie on a primitive tetragonal lattice. NaBH4 spontane- a 3–15 MPa H2 atmosphere [20]. LiBH4 is a hygroscopic crystal- ously reacts with water [35], while the spontaneous hydrolysis line material with a density of 0.66 g cmÀ3 at room temperature can be depressed in alkaline solutions. The solution can À [21]. The complex [BH4] anions align along two orthogonal effectively liberate hydrogen at room temperature in the directions and are strongly distorted with respect to bond presence of catalysts [6,7,35–44] via the following reaction: : lengths (dB–H ¼ 1.04(2)–1.28(1) A˚ ) and bond angles ( H–B– H ¼ 85.1(9)–120.1(9)) [21,22]. The hydroborate group in the / NaBH4 þ 2H2O NaBO2 þ 4H2 (2-1) covalent metal hydroborides is bonded to the metal atom by bridging hydrogen atoms similar to the bonding in diborane, By using 1.5 wt.% Pt–LiCoO2, one of the most active catalyst which is regarded as the simplest so-called ‘‘electron-defi- for this reaction, 4 equiv. of hydrogen can be generated in cient’’ molecule. Such a molecule possesses fewer electrons 16 min (molar ratio: Pt/NaBH4 ¼ 0.0002) [38]. It is reported that than those apparently required to fill all the bonding orbitals, the catalytic activities of Pt-based catalysts can be enhanced based on the criterion that a normal bonding orbital involving by decreasing the Pt particle size [38,40]. Besides the Pt-based two atoms contains two electrons. Because of these bonding materials, some non-noble transition elements, such as Co, properties, this chemical hydride is stable and temperatures also exhibit high activities. Hydrogen is released from an exceeding 673 K are required for the dehydrogenation of pure aqueous NaBH4 solution in 2.5 min in the presence of a fluo- LiBH4 [21]. This hydride releases three of the four hydrogen rinated cobalt catalyst (molar ratio: Co/NaBH4 ¼ 0.0056) [37]. atoms that are desorbed at 953 K into a hydrogen atmosphere at The effect of the particle size on the catalytic activities of a Co- pressures up to 10 atm [23]. The dehydrogenation is based catalyst has also been reported [42]. A Co–B thin film can exothermic, implying that the reverse reaction (hydrogena- be prepared by a pulsed laser deposition technique, and the tion) is not thermodynamically favored. Recent efforts have obtained Co-based material has a catalytic activity (reaction been devoted to incorporating additives, such as metal oxides completed within 100 min with Co/NaBH4 ¼ 0.0299) 2.5 times [21,24], metals [25], hydrides [25–27], metal halides [24,27], higher than that of the Co powder catalyst. Hydrogen gener- sulfides [27], nanoporous scaffolds [27], or lithium amide ation from the hydrolysis of NaBH4 is an excellent choice for [28–30] to thermodynamically destabilize the borohydrides a one-time application as the reaction is not reversible and toward an optimized (lowered) temperature for hydrogen leads to borate waste materials. An effective regeneration release. A new quaternary L–B–N–H system, formed by reacting process for converting the spent borate back to NaBH4 is LiBH4 and LiNH2 powders in a 1:2 molar ratio by ball milling or required for the successful implementation of this system. heating above 368 K, releases a large amount of hydrogen (>10 wt.%) below 623 K [29,30]. However, the dehydrogenation temperature is still high for practical application. In addition, 2.2. Ammonia borane the decomposition product had not yet achieved a significant hydrogenation by heating under H2 gas up to 8 MPa while the Ammonia borane, NH3BH3, contains 19.6 wt.% hydrogen, which dehydrogenated product using some other additives, such as is higher than that in LiBH4.NH3BH3 is synthesized by two V2O5, TiO2, TiCl3, and MgH2, reversibly adsorbed hydrogen at methods for laboratory-scale preparation, i.e., salt metathesis high temperature (>673 K) and high pressure (>7 MPa) [24,26]. and a direct reaction. The combination of ammonium salts Recently, the correlation between the thermodynamic stability with borohydrides (salt metathesis) gives NH3BH3 in a high international journal of hydrogen energy 34 (2009) 2303–2311 2305 yield [17,47,48]. The direct reaction of ammonia gas with Table 1 – Hydrogen generation from aqueous NH BH $ $ 3 3 BH3 THF [48], diborane [49],orBH3 SMe2 [50] also affords catalyzed by noble and non-noble metals.