Since water is the only oxidation product and hydrogen has the highest gravimetric energy density of any energy carrier, it is incredibly appealing for use in fixed and mobile power systems.
There have been significant efforts to produce chemical-based storage employing metal hydrides, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, and sorbents because of their poor volumetric energy density, which presents significant challenges.
These materials face a number of difficulties in the controlled uptake and release of hydrogen: Only a small number of materials can include ideal qualities, and they frequently involve significant trade-offs. Furthermore, a deeper comprehension of the intricate kinetics, mass transport, and microstructural processes connected to hydrogen uptake and release is required.
This Perspective’s objective is to outline potential use cases, identify important difficulties, and demonstrate that the solutions lie at the intersection of a number of chemistry-related fields, including catalysis, data science, nanoscience, interfacial phenomena, and dynamic or phase-change materials.
