Iron based catalyst for the improvement of the sorption properties of KSiH3

Recently, silanides (MSiH3) have been proposed as the possible hydrogen storage materials due to their hydrogen storage properties. Among these silanides, KSiH3 has been considered as leading contender due to its high hydrogen storage capacity i.e. 4.3 wt% and suitable thermodynamic parameters. It can absorb and desorb hydrogen reversibly at near ambient temperature, however, a high activation barrier slows down its kinetics. To enhance its kinetic properties, several catalysts have been attempted so far. Nb2O5 has been proven as leading catalyst with significant improvement. In the present work, Fe based catalysts were chosen due to their suitability for hydrogen storage materials. Among all the studied catalysts in this work, Fe2O3 was found to be the most effective catalyst, reducing the activation energy down to 75 kJ mol−1 from 142 kJ mol−1 for pristine KSi.