Dehydrogenation catalysis of mixed metal Borohydride Ammoniates

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The development of new hydrogen storage materials with high volumetric and gravimetric hydrogendensities is essential to implement fuel cell technology for both mobile and stationary applications.Boron hydride materials involving the combination of H and H during dehydrogenation offer goodhydrogen storage and release properties. Of these compounds, the metal borohydride ammoniates(MBAs), and, more recently, mixed metal borohydride ammoniates areamong the premier candidates for hydrogen storage materials, possessing high gravimetric hydrogenstorage capacities at relatively reasonable dehydrogenation temperatures However, the highlyendothermic nature of the thermal decompositions (to effect evolution of H2) still requires high energyinput and can yield undesirable side-products such as boranes or ammonia (the latter resulting froma preference for deammoniation over dehydrogenation). It has been shown that the use of a catalystcan promote dehydrogenation over deammoniation reactions for MBAs. In order to develop MMBAmaterials in hydrogen storage improvements in selectivity, dehydrogenation reaction conditions andunderstanding of the chemical processes involved are of significant importance. We propose toachieve improvements to MMBA dehydrogenation reactions through the development of newcatalytic methodologies to effect the thermolysis and undertake rigorous experiments to understandthe chemical processes. Using mechanistic experiments and kinetic investigations we will proposemechanisms for these reactions, this information will lead to new catalysts for improvements in areassuch as selectivity and temperatures for thermal decomposition.