Hydrides-Based Materials, Technologies, and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Solid-state hydrogen storage materials (SSHMs) have fascinated researchers all over the world for the last 70 years. Despite the fact that the very ambitious DOE (Department of Energy, USA) expectations for mobile hydrogen containers are being constantly lowered, for most of the experts in the field, it is obvious that without some new breakthrough, it is very unlikely that the currently used solid-state materials will solve the hydrogen storage problem for the transportation sector.

This does not mean, however, that the progress made in this field within those years was for nothing. In fact, there has been great progress with regard to hydrogen-containing materials and materials engineering. Binary hydrides that are considered as good candidates for storing hydrogen in a solid state are now only a very small fraction of the investigated compounds. The group of prospective materials has been largely developed and now includes, for example, intermetallic-based hydrides, complex hydrides, alanates, borohydrides, amides, and others. This progress has involved not only the discoveries of new materials, but also of methods for forcing many of these materials to be reversible in relatively mild temperature and pressure conditions.

Together with the great number of studied compounds, new experimental techniques have been developed and improved to allow for the successful synthesis of materials and composites, and for their effective modification with catalytic additives. This progress also involves characterisation techniques, which have become more precise, faster, and more flexible.  

Materials considered years ago as a source of hydrogen for mobile applications just recently became objects of study for less-demanding stationary energy sources and heat storage materials for solar thermal applications, i.e., for solar thermal energy storage.

Because of the abovementioned reasons, the current Special Issue covers all aspects connected with the synthesis, characterisation, and application of hydride-based materials, including especially, but not only, new hydride-based materials, new technologies for the synthesis of hydrogen storage materials, new characterisation tools and modifications of current techniques, new catalysts for the decomposition and synthesis of hydride-based materials, practical examples of the application of solid-state hydrogen storage materials, and problems related to measurement techniques and data accuracy in this field.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews may be submitted.

Dr. Marek Polanski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• hydrogen storage
• heat storage
• metal hydrides
• complex hydrides
• reactive ball milling
• solid-state batteries