The present investigation describes the hydrogen storage properties of MgH2 ball milled with different additives i.e. graphene templated rare earth metal (La and Ce) fluorides, CeF4 and LaF3. MgH2 ball milled with graphene templated CeF4 (MgH2:CeR(4@)Gr) has onset desorption temperature of 245 degrees C, which is 50 degrees C, 52 degrees C and 75 degrees C lower than MgH2 ball milled with LaF3 templated graphene, CeF4 and LaF3 respectively. CeF4@Gr also shows the superior effect amongst all additives during rehydrogenation where MgH2:CeF4@Gr absorbs 5.50 wt% within 2.50 min at 300 degrees C under 15 atm H-2 pressure. Dual tuning effect, i.e. lowering of thermodynamic (62.77 kJ/mol H-2: lower from 74 kJ/mol for pristine MgH2) and kinetics barrier (93.01 kJ/mol) has been observed for MgH2:CeR4@Gr. Additionally, MgH2 ball milled with CeF4@Gr shows good reversibility up to 24 cycles of de/rehydrogenation. The feasible working mechanism of CeF4@Gr as additive for MgH2 has been studied in detail with the help of Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Diffraction characterizations (XRD). (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.