HCS, HCS +MMAND HCVD: Novel strategies to synthesize Mg-based hydrides for hydrogen storage and related applications

Metal hydrides (MHs) have been widely applied in many functional materials. As one of the most representative lightweight MHs, Mg-based hydrides, as promising hydrogen carriers, have great potential in optical, electronic, energy-storage and conversion-related applications. Never-theless, the practical utilization of Mg-based hydrogen storage materials is hampered by both poor thermodynamics and sluggish dehydrogenation kinetics. Plenty of methods newly discovered have been proved to be helpful for the design and synthesis of magnesium hydride system, covering both physical and chemical means and considerable progress has thus been made. Here we present the recent progress and fundamental discussion on the Mg-based composites obtained by hydriding com-bustion synthesis (HCS), hydriding combustion synthesis and mechanical milling (HCS + MM) and hydriding chemical vapor deposition (HCVD), with special emphasis on the importance of high-efficiency catalysis and nanostructure design. This chapter will show that these three novel techniques are promising to prepare light weight hydrides with finely tuned macroscopic performance in hydrogen storage and related areas, helping researchers understand better the underlying disciplines.