Minimum heat of formation of potassium iodo hydride

It was previously reported (R. Mills et al., Synthesis and characterization of potassium iodo hydride, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 25(12) (2000) 1185) that a novel inorganic hydride compound KHI which comprised a high binding energy hydride ion was synthesized by reaction of atomic hydrogen with potassium metal and potassium iodide. Potassium iodo hydride was identified by time of flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, 1H and 39K nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, electrospray ionization time of flight mass spectroscopy, liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy, thermal decomposition with analysis by gas chromatography, and mass spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. We report measurements of heats of formation of KHI by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on a very reliable commercial instrument, a Setaram HT 1000 calorimeter. With reactant KI present, potassium metal catalyst and atomic hydrogen were produced by decomposition of KH at an extremely slow rate under a helium atmosphere to increase the amount of atomic hydrogen by slowing the rate of molecular hydrogen formation. Since not all of the starting materials reacted, the observed minimum heats of formation were over −2000 kJ/mol H2 compared to the enthalpy of combustion of hydrogen of −241.8 kJ/mol H2.