The catalytic effect of ZrCl4 on thermal dehydrogenation LiAlD4

Abstract Thermal dehydrogenation of ZrCl4 catalyzed LiAlD4 has been reported in the manuscript. The dehydrogenation process is completed in three steps. The dehydrogenation started at room temperature and completed at 400 °C. The results indicate the resilient catalytic effect of ZrCl4 which reduced the dehydrogenation temperature more than 100 °C. The deuterium desorption temperature of LiAlD4 was found to be substantially reduced for all the dehydrogenation steps as compared to uncatalyzed LiAlD4. The apparent activation energy of deuterium desorption was evaluated and found to be substantially less with respect to uncatalyzed LiAlD4. The results lead to the conclusion that the dehydrogenation temperature of LiAlT4 (T: tritium) could also be reduced using ZrCl4 as a catalyst.