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Aluminum hydride, AlH3, is the most well-known alane. Though thermodynamically unstable under ambient conditions, it is easily prepared in a metastable state that will undergo controlled thermal decomposition to produce H2 and Al at around 100 °C. AlH3 contains 10.1 wt % hydrogen and has a density of 1.48 g/mL and is therefore of interest for on-board automotive hydrogen storage. ΔH f and ΔG f298K for α-AlH3 are −9.9 and 48.5 kJ/mol AlH3, respectively. The latter value yields an equilibrium hydrogen fugacity of ∼5 × 105 atm at 298 K, which is equivalent to a hydrogen pressure of ∼7 × 103 atm. Thus, the direct regeneration of AlH3 from spent Al with gaseous H2 is deemed impractical. This paper describes an alternate approach to the regeneration of AlH3 via a low-temperature, low-pressure, reversible reaction using Ti-doped Al powder and triethylenediamine (TEDA). The adduct is formed in a slurry of the Al powder and a solution of TEDA in THF in contact with H2. The AlH3−TEDA product is insoluble and precipitates from solution. The reaction, forward or reverse, depends on the departure of the actual pressure of H2 gas above or below the equilibrium pressure. Pressure−composition isotherms in the range of 70−90 °C are presented from which thermodynamic data were calculated. A possible reaction mechanism is described. The relevance of this system to hydrogen storage applications is also noted.

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH(4)) is a promising compound for hydrogen storage, with a high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen density and a low decomposition temperature. Similar to other metastable hydrides, LiAlH(4) does not form by direct hydrogenation at reasonable hydrogen pressures; therefore, there is considerable interest in developing new routes to regenerate the material from the dehydrogenated products LiH and Al. Here we demonstrate a low-energy route to regenerate LiAlH(4) from LiH and Ti-catalyzed Al. The initial hydrogenation occurs in a tetrahydrofuran slurry and forms the adduct LiAlH(4).4THF. The thermodynamics of this reversible reaction were investigated by measuring pressure-composition isotherms, and the free energy was found to be small and slightly negative (DeltaG = -1.1 kJ/mol H(2)), suggesting an equilibrium hydrogen pressure of just under 1 bar at 300 K. We also demonstrate that the adduct LiAlH(4).4THF can be desolvated at low temperature to yield crystalline LiAlH(4).

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