Researchers at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute have combined d-Transition metals and rare earth metals to create a structure to store hydrogen in a compact manner.
Though hydrogen is considered to be an ideal source of renewable energy as it generates water as it’s only by product, it has been difficult to store hydrogen as a gas as it occupies more space and is difficult to transport.
Scientists have addressed this problem by synthesising d-Transition and rare earth metals to create metal hydrides. These metal hydrides use hydrogen atoms to store hydrogen. Hydrogen is bound to the metal hydrides to reduce it to a solid state, which is many times smaller than hydrogen in its gaseous state. The hydrogen is then released from its solid state by applying heat at a particular temperature.
Rare earth metal hydrides have the ability to diffract X-rays and thus provide scope for analysis. However, rare metal hydrides do not have the ability to release hydrogen on their own and do not undergo reversible hydrogen addition. To facilitate the release d-Transition metals are added. For the purpose of this research, molybdenum and tungsten were used. In the past d-Transition metals have been studied alone. This is the first research to combine d-Transition metals with more than one rare earth metal. According to the findings, these combinations have shown various properties in reactivity, which provides great potential to the discovery of new techniques of hydrogen storage.