Toward analyzing some neutral and cationic boron-lithium clusters (B xLi y x = 2-6; Y = 1, 2) as effective hydrogen storage materials: A conceptual density functional study

Abstract

The ability of neutral and cationic B xLi y (x = 2-6; y = 1, 2) systems as effective hydrogen-trapping materials are investigated at the MP2 level of theory using the 6-311+G(d, p) basis set. The different conceptual DFT-based global and local reactivity descriptors and the associated electronic structure principles provide invaluable insights toward assessing the utility of the boron-lithium clusters in trapping molecular hydrogen. A consistent thermodynamic spontaneity of the allied H 2-binding reactions along with a favorable decrease in the average dissociative chemisorption energies invokes the plausible usage of these cluster motifs for hydrogen loading in practice. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.