Observation of hydrogen absorption/desorption reaction processes in Li-Mg-N-H system by in-situ X-ray diffractmetry

The in-situ XRD measurements on dehydrogenation/rehydrogenation of the Li-Mg-N-H system were performed in this work. The ballmilled mixture of 8LiH and 3Mg(NH2)2 as a hydrogenated phase gradually changed into Li2NH as a dehydrogenated phase during heat-treatment at 200 °C in vacuum for 50 h. Neither Mg-related phases nor other intermediate phases were recognized in the dehydrogenated phase. With respect to the hydrogenation process, the dehydrogenated state gradually returned to the mixed phase of the LiH and Mg(NH2)2 without appearance of any intermediate phases during heat treatment at 200 °C under 5 MPa H2 for 37 h and during slow cooling down to room temperature through 24 h. In the hydrogenation process at 200 °C under 1 MPa H2, however, the growing up of the LiNH2 and LiH phase was observed in the XRD profiles before the 3Mg(NH2)2 and 8LiH phases were formed as the final hydrogenated state. This indicates that the LiNH2 and LiH phase essentially appears as an intermediate state in the Li-Mg-N-H system composed of 3Mg(NH2)2 and 8LiH.