Metallic Ni nanocatalyst in situ formed from a metal-organic-framework by mechanochemical reaction for hydrogen storage in magnesium

Yi Jia, Chenghua Sun, Ye Peng, Wen-Qi Fang, Xuecheng Yan, Dongjiang Yang, Jin Zou, Samuel S Mao, Xiangdong Yao

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Abstract

The facile and scalable fabrication of ultrafine (<5 nm) nanoparticles (NPs) as effective catalysts is the key for enhancing the kinetics of most hydrogen storage materials (HSMs). The direct fabrication of ultrafine NPs in HSMs is obviously a challenge because of the inevitable NPs agglomeration during the thermo-reduction. Herein, we report a mechanochemical-force-driven procedure for the one-step preparation of Ni NPs (2–3 nm) in a MgH2 matrix, which capitalizes on the in situ bottom-up reduction of Ni-MOF-74 in the presence of MgH2 as a reducing and sacrificing agent at room temperature. Both theoretical calculations and experimental investigations show that ultrafine Ni NPs are much more effective on catalytic hydrogenation/dehydrogenation in Mg due to the size effect. These findings may facilitate the fabrication of other catalyzed HSMs using different MOFs as catalyst precursors
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8294-8299
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume3
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

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