Structural-regulation of Laves phase high-entropy alloys to catalytically enhance hydrogen desorption from MgH2

Magnesium hydride (MgH2) is a promising hydrogen storage material, but slow hydrogen desorption kinetics and poor cycling stability still limit its development. Catalytic doping was demonstrated to provide effective solution for it. In this work, we develop novel Zr-based high-entropy alloys (HEAs) catalysts with different Laves phase structures to improve the hydrogen storage in MgH2. It was demonstrated that the catalyst grain size, defect density and lattice distortion have a great influence on the performance of HEAs catalysts. Specially, the C15 type Laves phase HEA exhibits a better catalytic effect than that of C14 type. The introduction of HEAs with "hydrogen pump" effect would shift the rate-limiting step of MgH2 hydrogen desorption from two-dimensional nucleation growth to two-dimension phase boundary migration, which makes it exhibit both great better hydrogen desorption kinetics enhanced by nine times and cycling stability with 92 % capacity retention after 30 cycles. This work not only highlights the impact of Laves phase crystal structure regulation on HEAs catalysts, but also provides insights into the design and development of HEAs catalysts to improve the hydrogen storage performance of MgH2. [Display omitted] •The C15 type Laves phase HEA is used as a catalyst for MgH2 for the first time.•Dehydrogenation model of MgH2-HEAs is two-dimension phase boundary migration.•"Hydrogen pumping" effect of HEAs improves hydrogen storage performance of MgH2.•The Modification of crystal structure makes the C15 Laves phase show better catalytic effect.