Direct synthesis of catalyzed hydride compounds
AssigneeSandia National Laboratories
InventorsKarl J. Gross, Eric Majzoub
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Abstract
A method is disclosed for directly preparing alkali metal aluminum hydrides such as NaAlH4 and Na3AlH6 from either the alkali metal or its hydride, and aluminum. The hydride thus prepared is doped with a small portion of a transition metal catalyst compound, such as TiCl3, TiF3, or a mixture of these materials, in order to render them reversibly hydridable. The process provides for mechanically mixing the dry reagents under an inert atmosphere followed by charging the mixed materials with high pressure hydrogen while heating the mixture to about 125° C. The method is relatively simple and inexpensive and provides reversible hydride compounds which are free of the usual contamination introduced by prior art wet chemical methods.
Claims26
A method of producing one or more complex hydride compounds capable of reversible hydrogenation, comprising:
- mechanically mixing a alkali metal hydride with aluminum powder and a powder of a transition metal catalyst compound in order to provide a compounded powder mixture;
- and
- hydrogenating said compounded mixture at an elevated temperature and pressure to provide one of more alkali metal-aluminum hydride compounds.
A method of producing one or more complex hydride compounds capable of reversible hydrogenation, comprising:
- mechanically mixing a comminuted form of an alkali metal, with aluminum powder and a powder of a transition metal catalyst compound to provide a compounded mixture;
- and
- hydrogenating said compound mixture at an elevated temperature and pressure to provide an alkali metal-aluminum hydride compound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.