Towards Direct Synthesis of Alane: A Predicted Defect‐Mediated Pathway Confirmed Experimentally

Abstract

Alane (AlH3) is a unique energetic material that has not found a broad practical use for over 70 years because it is difficult to synthesize directly from its elements. Using density functional theory, we examine the defectmediated formation of alane monomers on Al(111) in a two-step process: (1) dissociative adsorption of H2 and (2) alane formation, which are both endothermic on a clean surface. Only with Ti dopant to facilitate H2 dissociation and vacancies to provide Al adatoms, both processes become exothermic. In agreement, in situ scanning tunneling microscopy showed that during H2 exposure, alane monomers and clusters form primarily in the vicinity of Al vacancies and Ti atoms. Moreover, ball milling of the Al samples with Ti (providing necessary defects) showed a 10 % conversion of Al into AlH3 or closely related species at 344 bar H2, indicating that the predicted pathway may lead to the direct synthesis of alane from elements at pressures much lower than the 104 bar expected from bulk thermodynamics. [d,f] S. Gupta, [a] and V. K. Pecharsky* [a,c] Abstract: Alane (AlH3) is a unique energetic material that has not found broad practical use for over 70 years due to difficulties of its direct synthesis from elements. Using density functional theory we examine the defect-mediated formation of alane monomers on Al(111) in a two-step process: (1) dissociative adsorption of H2 and (2) alane formation; both are endothermic on clean surface. Only with Ti-dopant to facilitate H2 dissociation and vacancy to provide Al adatoms, both processes become exothermic. In agreement, in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy showed that during H2 exposure alane monomers and clusters form primarily in the vicinity of Al vacancies and Ti atoms. Moreover, ball-milling samples of Al with Ti (providing necessary defects) showed a 10% conversion of Al into AlH3 or closely related species at 344 bar H2, indicating that the predicted pathway may lead to direct synthesis of alane from elements at pressures much lower than the 10 4 bar expected from bulk thermodynamics.

A benign synthesis of alane by the composition-controlled mechanochemical reaction of sodium hydride and aluminum chloride

“…While density functional based computational studies point to possible stabilization of alane clusters [7], and elucidate the favorable role of transition metal catalysts and vacancies in such processes [8], attempts to convert elemental Al to AlH3 in high yields at easily achievable H2 pressures have been unsuccessful. Furthermore, traditional methods for synthesis of AlH3 not only require large volumes of environmentally hazardous organic solvents during the reaction but also relatively expensive lithium-containing reactants [9][10][11][12][13].…”