Strategies for the Improvement of the Hydrogen Storage Properties of Metal Hydride Materials

Metal hydrides are an important family of materials that can potentially be used for safe, efficient and reversible on-board hydrogen storage. Light-weight metal hydrides in particular have attracted intense interest due to their high hydrogen density. However, most of these hydrides have rather slow absorption kinetics, relatively high thermal stability, and/or problems with the reversibility of hydrogen absorption/desorption cycling. This paper discusses a number of different approaches for the improvement of the hydrogen storage properties of these materials, with emphasis on recent research on tuning the ionic mobility in mixed hydrides. This concept opens a promising pathway to accelerate hydrogenation kinetics, reduce the activation energy for hydrogen release, and minimize deleterious possible by-products often associated with complex hydride systems.