Molecular chemisorption: a new conceptual paradigm for hydrogen storage

Developing efficient hydrogen storage materials and the corresponding methods is the key to successfully realizing the “hydrogen economy”. The ideal hydrogen storage materials should be capable of reversibly ab-/desorbing hydrogen under mild temperatures with high hydrogen capacities. To achieve this target, the ideal enthalpy of adsorption is determined to be 15-50 kJ/mol for hydrogen storage. However, the current mainstream methods, including molecular physisorption and atomic chemisorption, possess either too high or too low enthalpy of hydrogen adsorption, which are not suitable for practical application. To this end, hydrogen storage via molecular chemisorption is perceived to regulate the adsorption enthalpy with intermediate binding energy between the molecular physisorption and atomic chemisorption, enabling the revisable hydrogen ad-/desorption possible under ambient temperatures. In this review, we will elaborate the molecular chemisorption as a new conceptual paradigm and materials design to advance future solid-state hydrogen storage.