The present work deals with a comparative study of Mg2TiO4, MgTiO3 and titania additives incorporated MgH2. Hydrogen storage measurements suggest that all these additives improve the hydrogen desorption/absorption performance of MgH2. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies highlight that rock salt phases consisting of highly reduced Ti exist in the samples. These results reiterate that in-situ formation of chemically reduced Ti containing active species is a critical step in the catalysis of TiO2/Mg2TiO4/MgTiO3 additives loaded MgH2. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.