title: Sodium alanate nanoparticles--linking size to hydrogen storage properties.
abstract: Important limitations in the application of light metal hydrides for hydrogen storage are slow kinetics and poor reversibility. To alleviate these problems doping and ball-milling are commonly applied, for NaAlH 4 leading to particle sizes down to 150 nm. By wet-chemical synthesis we have prepared carbon nanofiber-supported NaAlH 4 with discrete particle size ranges of 1-10 microm, 19-30 nm, and 2-10 nm. The hydrogen desorption temperatures and activation energies decreased from 186 degrees C and 116 kJ.mol (-1) for the largest particles to 70 degrees C and 58 kJ.mol (-1) for the smallest particles. In addition, decreasing particle sizes lowered the pressures needed for reloading. This reported size-performance correlation for NaAlH 4 may guide hydrogen storage research for a wide range of nanostructured light (metal) hydrides.
authors.affiliation: Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Utrecht University, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelis P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Baldé
authors.forename: Bart P C
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Hereijgers
authors.forename: Johannes H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Bitter
authors.forename: Krijn P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: de Jong