The compounds were purchased from Fluka Chemie AG
in Switzerland (Sigma–Aldrich Fine Chemicals) [4]: lithium
borohydride (LiBH4) no. 62460 (pract.; 95% gas-volumetric).
The samples were handled solely in the argon glove
box. The LiBH4-powder was transferred into the Mark-tubes
with an inner diameter of 1 mm in the argon glove box and sealed on top with putty and later on the tubes where closed
by melting the glass in a gas flame. The structure at room
temperature was investigated by means of synchrotron
radiation at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) with a high
resolution powder diffractometer (Debye–Scherrer geometry).
The photon energy was set to 8.15 eV (l ¼ 1:52 A ° ).
The desorption experiments were carried out in a stainless
steel cylinder. Approximately 200–300 mg of LiBH4 was
used for each desorption experiment. The desorbed gas was
measured by means of a mass flow controller (Brooks
instruments, 5850E, maximum flow 5 standard cm3 min1),
with a maximum full scale error of 1%.