Mark D. Allendorf, Chemistry '80, Senior Scientist, Sandia National Laboratories

Hydrogen has the highest gravimetric energy density of any energy carrier and produces water as the only oxidation product, making it extremely attractive for both transportation and stationary power applications. However, its low volumetric energy density causes considerable difficulties, inspiring intense efforts to develop material-based storage using metal hydrides, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, and sorbents. The controlled uptake and release of hydrogen by these can be described as a series of challenges — optimal properties fall within a narrow range that can only be found in few materials and often involve significant tradeoffs. As a result, the slow pace of infrastructure development for hydrogen transport and storage is affecting both its economics and consumer appeal.

In this presentation I will discuss three current thrusts in our research that are transforming our approach to materials design and discovery:

1) Confinement of metal hydrides in non-innocent nanoporous hosts such as MOFs and COFs

2) Co-design of materials, in which synthesis and characterization efforts partner with systems modeling to accomplish both forward and reverse engineering of new storage systems

3) Explainable machine learning, in which model prediction to validated material discovery was accomplished in only eighteen months

Together, these strategies are enabling us to overcome challenges that have blocked discovery of successful storage materials for decades.

Hosted by: Sophia Hayes & Bryce Sadtler