Facile high-yield synthesis of pure, crystalline Mg(BH4)2

Magnesium borohydride, Mg(BH4)2, a long-sought candidate for efficient hydrogen storage chemisorption technology, has been obtained in a pure and crystalline form by two new synthetic routes in a hydrocarbon solvent. A first synthetic approach involves a metathetical reaction between organometallic magnesium compounds; a second route consists of an insertion reaction of BH3 species, released from BH3.S(CH3)2, into the Mg-C bonds of MgR2, with complete replacement of R groups with BH4 groups. Both methods, based on commercially available reagents, afford identical, pure, polycrystalline materials, identified by X-ray diffraction as the so-called low-temperature hexagonal form of Mg(BH4)2, stable below 180 degrees C, recently shown to possess a complex, unpredictable, crystal structure.