Recent progress in metal borohydrides for hydrogen storage

The prerequisite for widespread use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is the development of new materials that can safely store it at high gravimetric and volumetric densities. Metal borohydrides M(BH ₄) _n (n is the valence of metal M), in particular, have high hydrogen density, and are therefore regarded as one such potential hydrogen storage material. For fuel cell vehicles, the goal for on-board storage systems is to achieve reversible store at high density but moderate temperature and hydrogen pressure. To this end, a large amount of effort has been devoted to improvements in their thermodynamic and kinetic aspects. This review provides an overview of recent research activity on various M(BH ₄) _n, with a focus on the fundamental dehydrogenation and rehydrogenation properties and on providing guidance for material design in terms of tailoring thermodynamics and promoting kinetics for hydrogen storage.