Abstract
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Porous Ni nanofibers (NFs) were synthesized via a single-nozzle electrospinning technique with subsequent calcination and reduction. The as-prepared continuous Ni NFs, with a uniform diameter of ∼50 nm and porous structure composed of a myriad of Ni nanocrystallites, were adopted to catalyze MgH
2 . The homogeneous distribution of Ni nanoparticles (NPs), obtained by ball milling Ni NFs with MgH2 , on the surface of MgH2 offered effective catalytic sites to significantly enhance the hydrogen storage properties of MgH2 . In particular, 4% Ni NF catalyzed MgH2 (MgH2 -4% Ni NFs) starts to release hydrogen at only 143 °C, with a peak temperature of 244 °C, 157 °C and 96 °C lower than for MgH2 catalyzed with as-milled 4% Ni powders (MgH2 -4% Ni powders), and it dehydrogenates completely within only 11 min at 325 °C (7.02 wt%). Compared with plain MgH2 and MgH2 -4% Ni powders, the activation energy of the as-milled MgH2 -4% Ni NF composite is significantly decreased to 81.5 kJ mol-1.