Hydrogen storage by non-metallic solid material

Hydrogen is often spoken as an environmentally-friendly fuel for road vehicles of the future. When consumed in a fuel-cell powered electric car, it produces nothing more than pure water as a by-product. However, many technological challenges remain before it can be used commercially. In particular, hydrogen has a low energy density compared to conventional fuels and therefore it must be stored as a liquid or an extremely high pressure gas to ensure that reasonable distances can be traveled before refueling. Current materials that can easily absorb and discharge hydrogen near room temperature contain transition metals and the storage process must be catalysed by expensive precious metals such as platinum. This makes them too heavy and too expensive for commercial use. But Douglas Stephan and colleagues at the University of Windsor have developed the first non-metallic solid material that can absorb and store hydrogen at room temperature without involving a transition metal. This discovery could lead to the development of low-cost and lightweight materials for the onboard storage of hydrogen fuel in cars. Although the metal-free material offers hope of lighter and cheaper storage materials, it stores less than 0.25% of its weight in hydrogen and researchers say there is still a long way to go.