Investigation of metal hydride nanoparticles templated in porous frameworks

Metal hydrides hold promise in effectively storing hydrogen. The chemical bonds in light metal hydrides are predominantly covalent, polar covalent or ionic. These bonds are often strong, resulting in thermodynamic stability and low equilibrium hydrogen pressures. The directionality of the covalent/ionic bonds leads to large activation barriers for atomic motion, resulting in slow hydrogen sorption kinetics. One method for enhancing reaction kinetics is to reduce the size of the metal hydrides to nano scale. The objective of this work is to use Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as templates for the synthesis of nano-scale metal hydride particles, to compare the H₂ desorption kinetics and thermodynamics, to corresponding bulk properties. MOFs have ordered crystalline lattice which provides a highly controlled and understandable environment. The work demonstrates that MOFs are stable hosts and they can be used as templates to form metal hydride nanoclusters on the scale of their pores (1 - 2 nm).