Effect of LaCoO 3 Synthesized via Solid-State Method on the Hydrogen Storage Properties of MgH 2 .

One of the ideal energy carriers for the future is hydrogen. It has a high energy density and is a source of clean energy. A crucial step in the development of the hydrogen economy is the safety and affordable storage of a large amount of hydrogen. Thus, owing to its large storage capacity, good reversibility, and low cost, Magnesium hydride (MgH 2 ) was taken into consideration. Unfortunately, MgH 2 has a high desorption temperature and slow ab/desorption kinetics. Using the ball milling technique, adding cobalt lanthanum oxide (LaCoO 3 ) to MgH 2 improves its hydrogen storage performance. The results show that adding 10 wt.% LaCoO 3 relatively lowers the starting hydrogen release, compared with pure MgH 2 and milled MgH 2 . On the other hand, faster ab/desorption after the introduction of 10 wt.% LaCoO 3 could be observed when compared with milled MgH 2 under the same circumstances. Besides this, the apparent activation energy for MgH 2 -10 wt.% LaCoO 3 was greatly reduced when compared with that of milled MgH 2 . From the X-ray diffraction analysis, it could be shown that in-situ forms of MgO, CoO, and La 2 O 3, produced from the reactions between MgH 2 and LaCoO 3 , play a vital role in enhancing the properties of hydrogen storage of MgH 2 .