F. Gennari
Dec 25, 2013
Citations
0
Influential Citations
17
Citations
Journal
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Abstract
Abstract A new erbium borohydride Er(BH 4 ) 3 was synthesized from 3LiBH 4 and ErCl 3 through mechanochemical processing. This rare-earth metal borohydride presents a primitive cubic structure with a = 10.74(1) A, which is isostructural with the one previously reported for R(BH 4 ) 3 (R = Y, Dy and Gd). During heating Er(BH 4 ) 3 exhibits a reversible structural transformation at about 220 °C, analogous to that observed for Y(BH 4 ) 3 . Combination of thermal hydrogen desorption, DSC, XRPD and FTIR measurements allows to determine that thermal decomposition of Er(BH 4 ) 3 starts at 230 °C and leads to 3.2 wt% of hydrogen release obtaining ErH 2 , an unknown intermediate compound and ErB 4 . It was observed that Er(BH 4 ) 3 is partially reversible under 6.0 MPa of H 2 at 400 °C and absorbs about 20% of the total hydrogen capacity obtained experimentally.