(Invited) Core-Shell Hydride Nanoarchitectures for Reversible Hydrogen Storage

Abstract

The properties of nanomaterials are known to be size depend. Such size depend effects could offer powerful means to finally control both the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of hydride materials at the molecular level [1] and thus enable the practical design of hydrogen storage materials from these effects. However, investigations through such an approach require new strategies to both synthesise and stabilise nanoparticles of highly reactive hydride materials and the understanding to control the key parameters that will allow reversibility with high storage capacity. The use of porous host structures offers such a route, however the storage capacity usually remains limited by the intrinsic difficulty of entirely fill the porosity. Herein, the potential of a new core-shell confinement approach and recent progress we have made through this nanosizing method will be discussed [2]. Since, complex hydrides still undergo phase transitions including melting at the nanoscale, this core-shell approach has proven to be an very effective strategy to stabilise and simultaneously catalyse the reversible storage of hydrogen with hydrides including borohydrides and alanates (Figure 1). It also provides us with new means to stabilise against oxidation highly reactive nanoparticles of elements such as lithium.