Dehydrogenation kinetics for pure and nickel-doped magnesium hydride investigated by in-situ, time-resolved powder diffraction (poster)

The dehydrogenation kinetics of pure and nickel-doped magnesium hydride was investigated by in-situ, time-resolved X-ray powder diffraction. A special reaction cell allowed the study of gas/solid reactions and analysis of the exhaust gas by massspectroscopy. X-ray data (0 <2è <120°) was collected under isothermal conditions with a time resolution of 45 s. Three phases were identified, Mg,MgH2 and MgO, and the phase fractions were extracted for each phase. Dehydrogenation curves wereconstructed and analyzed by the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami formalism in order to derive rateconstants at different temperatures. Apparent activation energies were calculated from Arrhenius plots revealing values of ca. 300 and 250 kJ/mol for the dehydrogenationof pure and nickel-doped magnesium hydride, respectively, in accord with EA= 270 kJ/mol measured by thermal desorption spectroscopy for these non-activated materials. Furthermore, the difference in apparent activation energy of ca. 50 kJ/mol compares totheoretical calculations for the atomisation of H2 molecules, which might be the rate-determining step in the dehydrogenation process.