Facile synthesis of TiN decorated graphene and its enhanced catalytic effects on dehydrogenation performance of magnesium hydride

Abstract

TiN@rGO nanohybrids were successfully synthesized by a simple “urea glass” technique. Experimental results demonstrated that TiN nanocrystals, with an average particle size of 20 nm, were uniformly anchored onto highly reduced graphene nanosheets. The as-synthesized TiN@rGO nanohybrids showed a porous planar-like structure, which had a large surface area of 177 m² g⁻¹. More importantly, the as-prepared TiN@rGO hybrids showed enhanced catalytic effects on the dehydrogenation of MgH₂. The dehydrogenation thermodynamics and kinetics of the MgH₂–TiN@rGO composites were systematically investigated and some significant improvements were confirmed. It was found that the 10 wt% TiN@rGO doped MgH₂ sample started to release hydrogen at about 167 °C, and roughly 6.0 wt% hydrogen was released within 18 min when isothermally heated to 300 °C. In contrast, the onset dehydrogenation temperature of the pure MgH₂ sample was about 307 °C, and only 3.5 wt% hydrogen was released even after 120 min of heating under identical conditions. In addition, the catalytic mechanism of TiN@rGO on the dehydrogenation of MgH₂ was discussed using the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami (JMA) model and X-ray diffraction equipment.