Magnesium hydride for energy storage applications: The kinetics of dehydrogenation under different working conditions

• A new model able to predict the dehydrogenation mechanism of MgH2 is proposed.
• Dehydrogenation mechanism of MgH2 depends on experimental conditions.
• The reaction follows a first order kinetics, equivalent to A1, under high vacuum.
• A third-order nucleation-grow model (A3) is followed under hydrogen pressure.
• The activation energy values agree with the value reported for MgH bond energy.

A new approach to the kinetics of magnesium hydride dehydrogenation is considered. A model able to predict the dehydrogenation under different experimental conditions has been proposed. A new combined kinetic analysis method, which considers the thermodynamic of the process according to the microreversibility principle, has been used for performing the kinetic analysis of data obtained under different thermal schedules at hydrogen pressures ranging from high vacuum up to 20 bar.The kinetic analysis shows that the dehydrogenation mechanism of magnesium hydride depends on the experimental conditions. Thus, the reaction follows a first order kinetics, equivalent to an Avarmi-Erofeev kinetic model with an Avrami coefficient equal to 1, when carried out under high vacuum, while a mechanism of tridimensional growth of nuclei previously formed (A3) is followed under hydrogen pressure. An explanation of the change of mechanism is given. It has been shown that the activation energy is closed to the MgH bond breaking energy independently of the hydrogen pressure surrounding the sample, which suggests that the breaking of this bond would be the rate limiting step of the process. The reliability of the calculated kinetic parameters is tested by comparing simulated and experimental curves.

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