The influence of different titanium additives on hydrogen sorption in LiHeMgB 2 system has been investigated. For all the composites LiHeMgB 2 eX (X ¼ TiF 4 , TiO 2 , TiN, and TiC), prepared by ball-milling in molar ratios 2:1:0.1, Þve hydrogen uptake/release cycles were performed. In-situ synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction (SR-PXD) and attenu-ated total reßection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) have been used to characterize crystal phases developed during the hydrogen absorptionedesorption cycles.All the composites with the titanium additives displayed an improvement of reaction kinetics, especially during hydrogen desorption. The LiHeMgB 2 eTiO 2 system reached a storage of about 7.6 wt % H 2 in w1.8 h for absorption and w2.7 h for desorption. Using in-situ SR-PXD measurements, magnesium was detected as an intermediate phase during hydrogen desorption for all composites. In the composite with TiF 4 addition the formation of new phases (TiB 2 and LiF) were observed. Characteristic diffraction peaks of TiO 2 , TiN and TiC additives were always present during hydrogen absorptionedesorption. For all as-milled composites, ATR-IR spectra did not show any signals for borohydrides, while for all hydrogenated composites BeH stretching (2450e2150 cm 1 ) and BeH bending (1350e1000 cm 1 ) bands were exactly the same as for commercial LiBH 4 .
IntroductionHydrogen can be one of the alternative energy carriers, which should replace the traditional fossil fuels in the near future. One of the promising materials for hydrogen mobile applica-tion which has been studied approximately for 10 years is LiBH 4 [1]. Having high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen density, this material, though, exhibits unfavorable kinetics and thermodynamics for real application in fuel cells. Recently, it was found that LiBH 4 can be destabilized by the addition of MgH 2 , showing better decomposition kinetics with respect to the pure compound [2]. A detailed analysis of the reversible interaction between LiBH 4 and MgH 2 was made in [3] and can be summarized as follow: 2LiBH 4 þ MgH 2 4 2LiBH 4 þ Mg þ H 2 4 2LiH þ MgB 2 þ 4H 2 (1)The direct reactions (1) take place at w400 C. Opposite reactions, with simultaneous formation of LiBH 4 and MgH 2 under 50 bar of H 2 , was conÞrmed at the temperatures 250e300 C [3]. It was observed that suitable additives might decrease reaction temperatures and improve kinetics of Eq. (1). Experimental evidence of kinetic improvement for reversible middle-temperature Na, Li and Al based complex hydrides doped by titanium additives appeared in 1997 [4]. It has also been reported that the kinetic improvement of the reaction (1) was reached by addition of 1 mol% of TiF 3 [5]. The property enhancement arising upon this additive persists well in the subsequent hydrogen uptake/release cycles. Another prom-inent example of the additives effect was the composite LiBH 4 eMgH 2 eTi{OCH(CH 3 ) 2 } 4 mixed in molar ratio 2:1:0.1 [6]. After ball-milling TiO 2 anatase was found and during 1-st hydrogen desorptio...