Two-dimensional C@TiO2/Ti3C2 composite with superior catalytic performance for NaAlH4

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.05.243
• Publication Date: 2020-07-05T20:09:08Z
• Authors: Zhenluo Yuan; Yanping Fan; Yumei Chen; Xianyun Liu; Baozhong Liu; Shumin Han
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 0104 chemical sciences

Abstract Carbon coated titanium dioxide supported on two-dimensional titanium carbide (C@TiO2/Ti3C2) is synthesized by simple annealing under a flowing acetylene (C2H2) atmosphere, and applied to improve the hydriding/dehydriding behavior of sodium alanate (NaAlH4). The results indicate that as-prepared C@TiO2/Ti3C2 composite exhibits excellent catalytic activity. The initial temperature for hydrogen desorption is reduced by 70 °C compared with the pristine sample. About 4.0 wt% hydrogen is released in 13 min at 140 °C. The apparent activation energies (Ea) of 10 wt% C@TiO2/Ti3C2 catalyzing NaAlH4 for the first two-steps dehydrogenation are 72.41 and 64.27 kJ mol−1 respectively. The structural analyses reveal that C@TiO2/Ti3C2 interacts with NaAlH4 by using ball milling and decomposes to form Ti-species which works in combination with carbon to improve the dehydrogenation performance of NaAlH4. This result provides an important progress in the hydrogen storage of NaAlH4 catalyzed by MXene.