Synergistic effects of des tabilization, catalysis and nanoconfinement on dehydrogenation of LiBH4

Abstract In this report, Ni and TiO 2 are successfully embedded into porous carbon aerogel (CA) (donated as Ni TiO 2 @CA). Meanwhile, the synergistic effect of Ni, TiO 2 and CA on the dehydrogenationproperties of LiBH 4 is systematically studied. Ni@CA, TiO 2 @CA and CA are also investigated for comparisons. Compared to other three materials, Ni TiO 2 @CA exhibits better performance when used as a carrier to support LiBH 4 . More than 6.75 wt% H 2 is released from LiBH 4 Ni TiO 2 @CA system in nearly 120 min at 350 °C, exhibiting a higher dehydrogenationcapacity than that of LiBH 4 Ni@CA (3.15 wt %), LiBH 4 TiO 2 @CA (5.15 wt%) and LiBH 4 -CA (2.05 wt %), respectively. Furthermore, the apparent energy (Ea) calculated with Kissinger method is 118.8 kJ/mol, much lower than that of pure LiBH 4 . Dehydrogenationperformance of LiBH 4 Ni TiO 2 @CA may be due to the synergetic effect of destabilization of TiO 2 , catalysis of Ni, as well as the nanoconfinement of CA.