J Mater Sci Technol ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (5): 401-406.

• Light Weight Metals • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synthesis of Nanostructured Mg−Ni Alloy and Its Hydrogen Storage Properties

N.A. Niaz1) , I. Ahmad1), Waheed S. Khan2), S. Tajammul Hussain3)   

  1. 1) Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
    2) Research Centre of Materials Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
    3) National Centre for Physics, Qaid-a-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Received:2011-09-27 Revised:2011-12-16 Online:2012-05-30 Published:2012-05-29
  • Contact: Ishaq Ahmad
  • Supported by:

    Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan under PhD indigenous-5000 Fellowship Program.

Abstract: Nanostructured Mg−Ni alloy with the particle size in the range of 40−50 nm was synthesized by the thermal decomposition of bipyridyl complexes of Mg and Ni metals at 773 K for 24 h under dry argon gas ambient. The as-prepared nano-alloy was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for compositional and structural analysis. The alloy exhibited superior hydrogen absorption and desorption behavior with 3.2 wt% absorption within 1 min at 573 K and about 3 wt% desorption within 5-10 min at 573 K. This favorable behavior of Mg−Ni compound for the hydrogen storage is due to the specific nanostructure of the material. The low activation energy values and favorable thermodynamics indicate that the prepared Mg−Ni alloy is an attracting material for hydrogen storage applications.

Key words: Mg−Ni alloy, Hydrogen storage, Pressure−composition−temperature (P−C−T) measurements, Transmission electron microscopy