MXenes are considered as potential
support materials for nanoconfinement
of MgH2/Mg to improve the hydrogen storage properties.
However, it has never been realized so far due to the stacking and
oxidation problems caused by unexpected surface terminations (−OH,
−O, etc.) on MXenes. In this study, hexadecyl
trimethylammonium bromide was used to build a 3D Ti3C2T
x
architecture of folded nanosheets
to reduce the stacking risk of flakes, and a bottom-up self-assembly
strategy was successfully applied to synthesize ultradispersed MgH2 nanoparticles anchored on the surface of the annealed 3D
Ti3C2T
x
(Ti-MX).
The composite with a 60 wt % loading of MgH2 NPs, 60MgH2@Ti-MX, starts to decompose at 140 °C and is capable
of releasing 3.0 wt % H2 at 150 °C within 2.5 h. In
addition, a reversible capacity up to 4.0 wt % H2 was still
maintained after 60 cycles at 200 °C without obvious loss in
kinetics. In situ high-resolution TEM observations
of the decomposition process together with other analyses revealed
that the nanosize effect caused by the nanoconfinement and the multiphasic
interfaces between MgH2(Mg) and Ti-MX, especially the in situ formed catalytic TiH2, were main reasons
accounting for the superior hydrogen sorption performances.