Recent progress of mechanically activated Mg-based materials to promote hydrogen generation via hydrolysis
Kashif Naseem, Fei Qin, Guoquan Suo, Shakeel Ahmed, Muddasir Hanif, Neda Gilani
Abstract
Commonly used nonrenewable fossil fuels are major sources of energy; however, they have adverse environmental effects. Hence, environmentally friendly renewable energy resources, such as hydrogen are a prospective candidates to meet energy demands and realizing the hydrogen economy. A major challenge to achieving the hydrogen economy is to develop safe, low-cost and efficient technique to generate hydrogen from a chemical storage medium. High hydrogen storage capacity, abundance, and eco-friendly byproducts are the features of Mg-based materials that has been made it competitive candidates for efficient hydrogen generation. Unfortunately, formation of dense passive layer of Mg(OH) 2 during hydrolysis attributed to the low hydrogen yields and poor kinetics, which is major barriers to the Mg-based materials to generate hydrogen via hydrolysis. In present review, we summarize the recent research progress of hydrogen generation via hydrolytic process of Mg-based materials and effect of nanosizing, mainly focus on the impact of the ball milling technique to activate Mg-based materials by the formation or modification of alloys and addition of catalysts, which may be able to overcome the associated drawbacks and improve the hydrolysis kinetics and hydrogen yields.