Researchers tackle hydrogen barrier
A solid material able to store – and easily release – large amounts of hydrogen has been developed at the University of Queensland.
Professor Max Lu, director of the ARC Centre for Functional Nanotechnology, says it puts science a step close to a future where cars are powered by hydrogen. “The difficulty has been to store hydrogen rapidly, to store enough hydrogen and to be able to release it quickly enough,” said Lu.
Nanotechnology processing has created a light and cheap metal alloy with a small grain size, which helps the hydrogen overcome the energy barrier when changing from gas to solid.