Kinetics of hydrogen release from dissolutions of ammonia borane in different ionic liquids

• Hydrogen release from ammonia borane dissolved in 13 ionic liquids has been studied.
• Induction time is shortened and hydrogen release rate is accelerated in all cases.
• The best results are obtained using ionic liquids with Tf2N anion.
• Ch cation ionic liquids enable higher H2 yield, but cyclotriborazane is produced.

Ammonia borane is a promising hydrogen storage material that liberates hydrogen by thermolysis at moderate temperatures, but it also presents major limitations for practical applications including a long induction time before the initiation of hydrogen release and a difficult regeneration. Previous works have demonstrated that by dissolution of ammonia borane into several ionic liquids, and particularly in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride bmimCl, the induction period at the beginning of the thermolysis is eliminated, but some problems persist, including foaming and the formation of a residue after thermolysis that is insoluble in the ionic liquid. In this work, the release of hydrogen from ammonia borane dissolved in different ionic liquids has been analyzed, measuring the kinetics of hydrogen release, visually following the evolution of the sample during the process using pressure glass tube reactors, and analyzing the residue by spectroscopic techniques. While dissolutions of ammonia borane in most ionic liquids analyzed show similar properties as dissolutions in bmimCl, using ionic liquids with bis(trifluoromethylsulfanyl)imide Tf2N anion the foaming problem is reduced, and in some cases the residue remains dissolved in the ionic liquid, while with ionic liquids with choline anion higher hydrogen yields are achieved that indicate that the decomposition of ammonia borane proceeds through a different path.