Hydriding-dehydriding properties of Mg2Ni alloy modified by ball-milling in tetrahydrofuran

A new approach of ball-milled MgNi in tetrahydrofuran (THF) to improve the hydriding kinetics of MgNi alloyis suggested and studied. It is found that the modified alloy displayed the improved activity for hydriding even at relativelylow temperature (e.g., 323-373 K). In the case of the sample milled in THF for 20h, the hydrogen content (mass fraction)reaches 1.6% at 323K, 2.1% at 348K and 3.4% at 448K, respectively. The use of THF during grinding led to the changeof the structure, which is reflected by the broadening and weakening of the diffraction peaks in the XRD spectra. The XPSanalysis shows that Mg (2s) binding energy peak of MgNi after modification shifted from a lower binding energy to ahigher one, indicating the charge transference between Mg and THF and the formation of catalytically active electron do-nor-acceptor (EDA) complexes on the surface of modified MgNi alloy.