Hydrogen desorption properties of Mg thin films at room temperature

Pd–Mg–Pd thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering could absorb hydrogen entirely at room temperature and dehydrogenate completely and rapidly in ambient air. Our investigations of the structural, optical and electrical properties gave a detailed insight into the desorption mechanism. The overall activation energy and the hydrogen diffusion coefficient were deduced to be 48 kJ mol−1 and 8.0 × 10−15 cm2 s−1 based on optical and electrochemical measurements, respectively. The desorption process followed the nucleation and growth mechanism by modeling and simulating the resistance data. The small activation energy and remarkable diffusion kinetics highlighted the applicability as on-board hydrogen storage systems.