1
Department of Physical Chemistry of Materials, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche, Av. Bustillo km 9500, San Carlos de Bariloche P.C. 8400, Argentina
2
Department of Nanotechnology, Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz–Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
3
Department of Metalphysics, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Centro Atómico Bariloche, Av. Bustillo km 9500, San Carlos de Bariloche P.C. 8400, Argentina
4
Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas, INIFTA (CCT La Plata-CONICET, UNLP), Diagonal 113 y Calle 64, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
5
IFW Dresden, Helmholtzstr. 20, 01069 Dresden, Germany
6
Institute of Materials Technology, Helmut Schmidt University, Holstenhofweg 85, 22043 Hamburg, Germany
Abstract
Mg
2FeH
6 is regarded as potential hydrogen and thermochemical storage medium due to its high volumetric hydrogen (150 kg/m
3) and energy (0.49 kWh/L) densities. In this work, the mechanism of formation of Mg
2FeH
6 under equilibrium conditions
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Mg
2FeH
6 is regarded as potential hydrogen and thermochemical storage medium due to its high volumetric hydrogen (150 kg/m
3) and energy (0.49 kWh/L) densities. In this work, the mechanism of formation of Mg
2FeH
6 under equilibrium conditions is thoroughly investigated applying volumetric measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), and the combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Starting from a 2Mg:Fe stoichiometric powder ratio, thorough characterizations of samples taken at different states upon hydrogenation under equilibrium conditions confirm that the formation mechanism of Mg
2FeH
6 occurs from elemental Mg and Fe by columnar nucleation of the complex hydride at boundaries of the Fe seeds. The formation of MgH
2 is enhanced by the presence of Fe. However, MgH
2 does not take part as intermediate for the formation of Mg
2FeH
6 and acts as solid-solid diffusion barrier which hinders the complete formation of Mg
2FeH
6. This work provides novel insight about the formation mechanism of Mg
2FeH
6.
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