IMSE Seminar with Mark Allendorf on Materials-Based Hydrogen Storage
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:
- Confinement of metal hydrides in non-innocent nanoporous hosts such as MOFs and COFs
- 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
- 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.
Dr. Mark D. Allendorf is Co-Director of the DOE Hydrogen Materials – Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC) and a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. He holds an A.B. in chemistry (Magna Cum Laude) from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University. At Sandia, his research focuses on the fundamental science and applications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and on hydrogen storage. Current interests include metal hydrides and MOFs for hydrogen storage, as well as chemical and radiation sensing, MOFs for electronic devices, and machine learning for materials discovery. His research has generated over 230 journal articles and proceedings papers, as well as thirteen patents. He is Past President and Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and has received Sandia awards for research, leadership, and teamwork, as well as an R&D100 Award for a novel approach to radiation detection.