Enhanced hydrogen storage performance of magnesium hydride catalyzed by medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi nanosheets

The sluggish de/hydrogenation kinetics and stable thermodynamics of magnesium hydride (MgH2) are unfavorable for its large-scale application. Herein, the medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi nanosheets were synthesized and remarkably enhanced the low-temperature hydrogen storage performance of MgH2. Surprisingly, the initial dehydrogenation temperature of 9 wt% CrCoNi modified MgH2 was greatly reduced from 325 °C to 195 °C, a drop of 130 °C compared to non-additive MgH2. Also, the MgH2–CrCoNi composite released 4.84 wt% hydrogen at 300 °C even in 5 min and absorbed 3.19 wt% hydrogen at 100 °C within 30 min (3.2 MPa). The calculated de/rehydrogenation activation energy were reduced by 45 and 55 kJ mol−1, respectively. Further cyclic kinetics investigation indicates that the 9 wt%-CrCoNi doped MgH2 still presented good stability after 20 cycles, losing only 0.36 wt% hydrogen capacity. The XRD pattern validated that CrCoNi remained stable during the cyclic reaction process. Besides, the uniformly distributed CrCoNi nanosheets were in tight contact with the MgH2 surface, providing abundant catalytic active sites and low-energy barrier diffusion channels. Under synergistic catalysis, the H atoms are rapidly absorbed and released across the Mg/MgH2 interface, resulting in excellent kinetic properties. Briefly, this paper provides new references and inspirations to design efficient polymetallic catalysts for hydrogen storage materials.