Cost-Effective Hierarchical Catalysts for Promoting Hydrogen Release from Complex Hydrides
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Updated: Apr 7, 2026

A Simple, Low-cost, and Robust System to Measure the Volume of Hydrogen Evolved by Chemical Reactions with Aqueous Solutions
Published on: August 17, 2016
Cheng-Hsien Yang1, Chih-Ping Hsu1, Sheng-Long Lee1
1Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University, 300 Jhong-Da Road, Taoyuan (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 3-2805034.
Abstract:
Fe nanoparticles (∼10 nm), used to grow carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have an outstanding ability to catalyze the dehydrogenation of LiAlH4 . The CNTs help connect Fe and LiAlH4 and create microchannels among the composite, thus promoting the release of hydrogen. Inspired by these results, a supercritical-CO2 -fluid-assisted deposition technique is employed to decorate the Fe/CNTs with highly dispersed nanosized Ni (∼2 nm in diameter) for better performance. With the incorporation of 10 wt % of this hierarchical catalyst (Ni/Fe/CNTs), the initial dehydrogenation temperature of LiAlH4 is decreased from ∼135 to ∼40 °C. At 100 °C, this catalyzed LiAlH4 takes only ∼0.1 h to release 4.5 wt % hydrogen, which is more than 100 times faster than the time needed with pristine LiAlH4 . The dehydrogenation mechanism of the complex hydride is examined using in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction.
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