Enhanced hydrogen sorption capacities and kinetics of Mg₂Ni alloys by ball-milling with carbon and Pd coating

Solid-state hydrogen storage alloys are becoming a practical method to transport and utilize hydrogen as fuel for various technologies. In this paper, the kinetics and capacity of hydrogen desorption from Mg-based alloys have markedly been enhanced by tuning the surface composition of alloy particles. Mg₂Ni–C_{t, x} composites (where t refers to the pregrinding time and x to the Brunauer–Emmet–Teller specific surface area) were prepared by ball-milling the alloy in the presence of preground graphite, and Pd-coated Mg₂Ni alloy powders were obtained by controlled chemical deposition of Pd on the alloy surface. We have found that the optimization of the pregrinding step of carbon is a determinant factor in enhancing the hydrogen desorption capacity of the Mg₂Ni–10 wt.% C_10,320 composites to 2.6 wt.% at 150 °C, the maximum performance so far reported on desorption for Mg-based alloys. Such value can even be raised to 2.8 wt.% by applying Pd deposition on the composite.