Hydrogen desorption from LiBH4 destabilized by chlorides of transition metal Fe,Co, and Ni

The dehydrogenation temperature of LiBH₄ was considerably decreased to 230 °C–300 °C when it was manually mixed with FeCl₂, CoCl₂ and NiCl₂ in a molar ratio of 2:1. Mixing LiBH₄ with NiCl₂ or FeCl₂ led to complete hydrogen desorption from LiBH₄, i.e. 18.3 wt% hydrogen was achieved with respect to the weight of LiBH₄. However, the CoCl₂ addition resulted in less hydrogen release due to the formation of diborane. Ball milling treatment for the mixtures of LiBH₄ and these chlorides further decreased hydrogen desorption temperatures. The results indicate that LiBH₄ could be effectively destabilized by the chlorides of Fe, Co and Ni. Small doping of these chlorides into LiBH₄ was found to be effective in enhancing dehydrogenation kinetics of the remaining LiBH₄ due to the formation of metal borides.