The investigation of hydrogen sublattice in Mg2NiHx (x = 0.3) hydride by first-principle calculations

•DFT calculations complemented experimental data about structure of Mg2NiH0.3.•The model of structure from the literature was improved.•The occupation of trigonal voids by hydrogen is unstable.•Trigonal hydrogen site is split into two adjacent tetrahedral ones. The structure of hydrogen sublattice of the Mg2NiH0.3 phase has been studied by computational methods to overcome some ambiguities of the experimental method. Seven types of possible hydrogen sites (marked as X1 to X7) were found. Models with occupation of X1 or X2+X3 sites were found in the literature. Further analysis of geometry and electronic density of the Mg2Ni compound revealed three additional types of voids X4-X6. Models having from 1 to 3 hydrogen atoms per unit cell were tested. The optimization of some of the models with occupied X2 and X5 sites led to shift of hydrogen atoms into the new type of voids X7. It was revealed that two the most energetically favorable ordered models have two types of tetrahedral sites occupied by hydrogen: X3 (H@Mg3Ni) and X7(H@Mg2Ni2). It was suggested that the real structure was a superposition of these models with either two X3 or both X3+X7 voids occupied. The developed structure is close to and has the advantage over one of the models mentioned in the literature, since the trigonal X2 site presented in the literature model is split here into two adjacent tetrahedral X7 sites.