Enhancement of the H2 desorption properties of LiAlH4 doping with NiCo2O4 nanorods

•2% NCO–LiAlH4 exhibits the superior dehydrogenation performances.•2% NCO–LiAlH4 releases 6.47 wt% H2 at 150 °C within 150 min.•Approximately 7.10 wt% of hydrogen can be released from 2% NCO–LiAlH4 at 150 °C.

Lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) is considered as an attractive candidate for hydrogen storage owing to its favorable thermodynamics and high hydrogen storage capacity. However, its reaction kinetics and thermodynamics have to be improved for the practical application. In our present work, we have systematically investigated the effect of NiCo2O4 (NCO) additive on the dehydrogenation properties and microstructure refinement in LiAlH4. The dehydrogenation kinetics of LiAlH4 can be significantly increased with the increase of NiCo2O4 content and dehydrogenation temperature. The 2 mol% NiCo2O4-doped LiAlH4 (2% NCO–LiAlH4) exhibits the superior dehydrogenation performances, which releases 4.95 wt% H2 at 130 °C and 6.47 wt% H2 at 150 °C within 150 min. In contrast, the undoped LiAlH4 sample just releases <1 wt% H2 after 150 min. About 3.7 wt.% of hydrogen can be released from 2% NCO–LiAlH4 at 90 °C, where total 7.10 wt% of hydrogen is released at 150 °C. Moreover, 2% NCO–LiAlH4 displayed remarkably reduced activation energy for the dehydrogenation of LiAlH4.