Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials

<p>Ammonia borane and ammonium borohydride have been considered extensively as potential hydrogen storage materials. This thesis reports their structure and functional properties, emphasising the key role that dihydrogen bonding plays in both materials.</p> <p>The formation of a &#...

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Main Author: Hore, K
Other Authors: Edwards, P
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
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author Hore, K
author2 Edwards, P
author_facet Edwards, P
Hore, K
author_sort Hore, K
collection OXFORD
description <p>Ammonia borane and ammonium borohydride have been considered extensively as potential hydrogen storage materials. This thesis reports their structure and functional properties, emphasising the key role that dihydrogen bonding plays in both materials.</p> <p>The formation of a 'mobile phase' is considered to be the preliminary step in the decomposition of ammonia borane. The formation of this mobile phase has been studied using neutron diffraction, inelastic neutron spectroscopy and NMR. It has been found that in the mobile phase, 'end-to-end' flipping of the ammonia borane molecule occurs. This is an important precursor to the next step in the decomposition: the formation of the diammoniate of diborane. The dihydrogen bonding networks which occur in both the orthorhombic and the tetragonal phases of ammonia borane, and are the controlling factor in the decomposition process, were investigated using Density Functional Theory Molecular Dynamics (DFT-MD) simulations. It was hence shown that in the high-temperature tetragonal phase of ammonia borane, dihydrogen bonding is still an important stabilising interaction and there is little to distinguish between the three crystallographically distinct dihydrogen bonds.</p> <p>A closely related hydrogen storage material, ammonium borohydride, was also studied using the same techniques. Its low temperature phase progression was examined using variable temperature neutron diffraction. The vibrational modes of ammonium borohydride were assigned by comparing vibrational spectra determined using inelastic neutron spectroscopy with the results of DFT-MD simulations. Quasielastic neutron spectroscopy was used to show that both the ammonium and borohydride groups in ammonium borohydride perform discrete 'hopping' reorientational motions at a wide range of temperatures, and that the ammonium group has a mean residence time approximately 100 times less than that of the borohydride group. Hydrogen atom densities in the ammonium group were determined from DFT-MD simulations, and from refinements of high-resolution neutron diffraction data using cubic harmonic basis functions.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:8625aca3-fb03-4a11-a621-4ef835ad53722022-03-26T22:02:04ZAmmonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materialsThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:8625aca3-fb03-4a11-a621-4ef835ad5372CrystallographyPhysical SciencesChemistry & allied sciencesHydrogen StorageEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2013Hore, KEdwards, PDavid, B<p>Ammonia borane and ammonium borohydride have been considered extensively as potential hydrogen storage materials. This thesis reports their structure and functional properties, emphasising the key role that dihydrogen bonding plays in both materials.</p> <p>The formation of a 'mobile phase' is considered to be the preliminary step in the decomposition of ammonia borane. The formation of this mobile phase has been studied using neutron diffraction, inelastic neutron spectroscopy and NMR. It has been found that in the mobile phase, 'end-to-end' flipping of the ammonia borane molecule occurs. This is an important precursor to the next step in the decomposition: the formation of the diammoniate of diborane. The dihydrogen bonding networks which occur in both the orthorhombic and the tetragonal phases of ammonia borane, and are the controlling factor in the decomposition process, were investigated using Density Functional Theory Molecular Dynamics (DFT-MD) simulations. It was hence shown that in the high-temperature tetragonal phase of ammonia borane, dihydrogen bonding is still an important stabilising interaction and there is little to distinguish between the three crystallographically distinct dihydrogen bonds.</p> <p>A closely related hydrogen storage material, ammonium borohydride, was also studied using the same techniques. Its low temperature phase progression was examined using variable temperature neutron diffraction. The vibrational modes of ammonium borohydride were assigned by comparing vibrational spectra determined using inelastic neutron spectroscopy with the results of DFT-MD simulations. Quasielastic neutron spectroscopy was used to show that both the ammonium and borohydride groups in ammonium borohydride perform discrete 'hopping' reorientational motions at a wide range of temperatures, and that the ammonium group has a mean residence time approximately 100 times less than that of the borohydride group. Hydrogen atom densities in the ammonium group were determined from DFT-MD simulations, and from refinements of high-resolution neutron diffraction data using cubic harmonic basis functions.</p>
spellingShingle Crystallography
Physical Sciences
Chemistry & allied sciences
Hydrogen Storage
Hore, K
Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title_full Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title_fullStr Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title_full_unstemmed Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title_short Ammonia borane and its derivatives: high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
title_sort ammonia borane and its derivatives high weight percentage hydrogen storage materials
topic Crystallography
Physical Sciences
Chemistry & allied sciences
Hydrogen Storage
work_keys_str_mv AT horek ammoniaboraneanditsderivativeshighweightpercentagehydrogenstoragematerials