Enhanced Hydrogen Storage of Alanates: Recent Progress and Future Perspectives

The global energy crisis and environmental pollution have caused great concern. Hydrogen is a renewable and environmentally friendly source of energy and has potential to be a major alternative energy carrier in the future. Due to its high capacity and relatively low cost of raw materials, alanate has been considered as one of the most promising candidates for hydrogen storage. Among them, LiAlH₄ and NaAlH₄, as two representative metal alanates, have attracted extensive attention. Unfortunately, the high desorption temperature and sluggish kinetics restrict its practical application. In this paper, the basic physical and chemical properties as well as the hydrogenation/dehydrogenation reaction mechanism of LiAlH₄ and NaAlH₄ are briefly reviewed. The recent progress on strategic optimizations toward tuning the thermodynamics and kinetics of the alanate including nanoscaling, doping catalysts and compositing modification are emphatically discussed. Finally, the coming challenges and the development prospects are also proposed in this review.