Nanostructured and Nanocomposite Light Metal-Based Compounds for Hydrogen Storage

Abstract

The present paper is an overview of our recent results on the nanostructural processing and synthesis of complex hydrides in the Mg-M-H (M= Co, Mn, B and Fe) systems by using Controlled Reactive Mechanical Alloying (CRMA) and Milling (CMM) in the magneto-mill Uni-Ball-Mill 5. Under shearing mode of milling the principal nanocrystalline hydride being created in the 2Mg-Co, 3Mg-Mn and Mg-2B mixtures is �-MgH2 whose nanograin size can be immensely reduced to the range of ~10�5 nm. For the Mg-2B mixture X-ray diffraction seems to provide some evidence for the presence of a small amount of nanostructured Mg(BH4)2. In the 2Mg-Fe mixture amorphization of elemental Mg and formation of amorphous MgH0.6�1.1 hydride is observed.