Cost-effective mechanochemical synthesis of highly dispersed supported transition metal catalysts for hydrogen storage

Here, we demonstrate a quasi-solid-state template strategy to synthesis highly dispersed supported metal catalysts on nitrogen-doped carbon (M-N-C) with a large fraction of single atom Ni species, in which dispersion of metal precursor, evaporation of solvent and downsizing of templates can be simultaneously achieved during the one-step ball-milling process. The incorporation of such nickel-based catalysts into MgH2 greatly improved the kinetics with the reduced activation energy of 87.2 ± 5.4 kJ mol−1 (156.5 ± 3.2 kJ mol−1 for blank). The versatility of this method is confirmed by the successful synthesis of the whole series of 3d transition elements (Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) and La, Ce. The kinetic enhancement of their MgH2 integrated composites lies on these elements’ electronegativity which determines the dispersity of metal atoms and the strength of metal-hydrogen interaction.