Electrochemical Hydrogen Storage in Lightweight Electrode Materials: Investigation of Magnesium and Carbon-based Compounds

Energy storage has nowadays become an important issue due to the fact that equipment is being scaled down while energy consumption is generally not reduced. This has also resulted in ever increasing environmental issues. A possible answer might be found in using clean fuels such as hydrogen. Currently, US Department of Energy (DoE) targets for the year 2010 aim at 6 wt.% of hydrogen stored on system level. Presently, energy densities achieved by commercial Metal-Hydrides reach only 1.2 wt.%. Furtherdevelopment of new lightweight hydrogen storage materials, based on magnesium or carbon, can provide a possible route to highergravimetrical storage capacities. The research described in this work shows that magnesium-based alloys show excellent reversible and fast hydrogen storage properties with capacities up to 6.7 wt.%. This makes these materials very promising candidates when considering applications where hydrogen storage plays an important role. The described in-depth investigation should help shed some light on this new and exciting field of lightweight materials, and should be especially useful to professionals in academic and research environments.