Materials, Hydrides and Systems for a Sustainable Energy Future

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Inorganics focuses on materials for energy storage and conversion, while also addressing magnetic, electronic, superconducting, and cation-conducting materials. It highlights how compositional and structural versatility enables new functionalities. Hydrogen has a diverse chemistry, which allows for interaction with most elements, supporting the discovery of novel materials for energy storage and conversion. Decades of research have produced many new materials with unique structures and properties.

Today, metal hydrides are explored for a range of applications from hydrogen export, remote area power systems, solid-state batteries, thermochemical energy storage and hydrogen diffusion, etc. Recent advances include “super-hydrides” with extremely high hydrogen densities, attracting attention as superconductors with record critical temperatures. Metal alloys, including high-entropy alloys, show promising hydrogen storage capabilities and potential use in hydrogen compressors. Achieving reversible solid-state hydrogen storage under ambient conditions with moderate energy exchange remains a key challenge for a hydrogen-based society, including the implementation of fuel cells for hydrogen production and energy conversion. Recent work on dihydrogen bonding has enabled new electrolytes with flexible structures and fast cation conductivity for divalent ions like magnesium and calcium, supporting the development of solid-state batteries.

Metal hydrides and related materials continue to attract interest for applications including energy storage and conversion systems, batteries, and hydrogen compression, which is obvious from two previous related Special Issues published in Inorganics: "Functional Materials Based on Metal Hydrides I and II". The aim of this Special Issue of Inorganics, titled ‘Materials, Hydrides and Systems for a Sustainable Energy Future’, is to inspire continued research within solid state materials, in particular for energy-related applications. New properties, techniques and results will be highlighted with a focus on new research directions towards sustainable energy technologies. This Special Issue will be launched at the conference ‘HydEM 2026, Hydrides as Energy Materials’, held in Braunschweig, Germany, 3–5th June 2026.

Dr. Erika Michela Dematteis
Prof. Dr. Michael Heere
Dr. Mark Paskevicius
Prof. Dr. Yaroslav Filinchuk
Prof. Dr. Hai-Wen Li
Dr. Marek Polanski
Prof. Dr. Torben R. Jensen
Guest Editors

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• new materials and metal hydrides
• materials characterisation
• structure property relationships
• ab initio structural models
• theoretical prediction of materials
• hydrogen storage
• physisorption of gas
• super-conducting materials
• super-hydrides
• high-entropy alloys
• hydrogen related applications
• solid state hydrogen compressors
• thermochemical energy storage
• fuel cells
• solid state batteries
• solid state electrolyte
• nano-composites and nanoconfinement