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Hydrogen–fluorine exchange in the NaBH4–NaBF4 system is investigated using a range of experimental methods combined with DFT calculations and a possible mechanism for the reactions is proposed. Fluorine substitution is observed using in situ synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction (SR-PXD) as a new Rock salt type compound with idealized composition NaBF2H2 in the temperature range T = 200 to 215 °C. Combined use of solid-state 19F MAS NMR, FT-IR and DFT calculations supports the formation of a BF2H2− complex ion, reproducing the observation of a 19F chemical shift at −144.2 ppm, which is different from that of NaBF4 at −159.2 ppm, along with the new absorption bands observed in the IR spectra. After further heating, the fluorine substituted compound becomes X-ray amorphous and decomposes to NaF at ∼310 °C. This work shows that fluorine-substituted borohydrides tend to decompose to more stable compounds, e.g. NaF and BF3 or amorphous products such as closo-boranes, e.g. Na2B12H12. The NaBH4–NaBF4 composite decomposes at lower temperatures (300 °C) compared to NaBH4 (476 °C), as observed by thermogravimetric analysis. NaBH4–NaBF4 (1 : 0.5) preserves 30% of the hydrogen storage capacity after three hydrogen release and uptake cycles compared to 8% for NaBH4 as measured using Sievert’s method under identical conditions, but more than 50% using prolonged hydrogen absorption time. The reversible hydrogen storage capacity tends to decrease possibly due to the formation of NaF and Na2B12H12. On the other hand, the additive sodium fluoride appears to facilitate hydrogen uptake, prevent foaming, phase segregation and loss of material from the sample container for samples of NaBH4–NaF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ca(BH4)2is a promising material for hydrogen storage due to its high gravimetric capacity and expected suitable thermodynamic properties. Experimental reports indicate a more complex reaction pathway than the previously proposed route, including formation of unknown intermediate phases. In this work, the reaction scheme of a mixture of γ- and β-Ca(BH4)2was investigated using temperature programmed desorption and high-resolution synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction. An unknown intermediate Ca–B–H-containing phase has been identified as a CaB2Hxcompound where xmost probably equals 2. A structure model is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystal structure of Zr2NiD4.5 has been determined by a combination of synchrotron radiation powder X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction and powder neutron diffraction data. Deuterium ordering results in a triclinic supercell given by asuper = 6.81560 (7), bsuper = 8.85137 (9), csuper = 8.88007 (10) Å, αsuper = 79.8337 (8), βsuper = 90.0987 (9), γsuper = 90.3634 (9)°, which relates to the non-super unit cell as asuper = − a, bsuper = − b −  c, csuper = − b +  c. The centrosymmetric and fully ordered deuterium sublattice was determined by simulated annealing and Rietveld refinement. Deuterium was found to occupy three types of tetrahedral sites: two that are coordinated by four Zr atoms and one that is coordinated by three Zr atoms and one Ni atom. All D—D distances are longer than 2 Å. The feasibility of the crystal structure was supported by density functional theory calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]