Imagine a sponge that could soak up a thousand times its own volume in water.  Now imagine how effective that sponge would be if it could store hydrogen instead of water, giving researchers an alternative to compressed air cylinders for storing the gas.

Palladium, a precious metal closely related to platinum, is that sponge.  Unlike any other element, it takes up hydrogen at room temperature and pressure.  In a recent study, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have gained new insight into how this uptake of hydrogen occurs, realized how it impacts the atomic structure of the palladium, and identified key properties of how this form of hydrogen storage could work in the future.

When hydrogen is cycled into the palladium nanoparticles, it alters and degrades the particles’ structure over time due to strain. “It’s like trying to put your foot in too small of a shoe,” said Argonne postdoctoral researcher Andrew Ulvestad, who was the study’s first author.

For more see the Argonne press release by Jared Sagoff.

See: A. Ulvestad, M.J. Welland, S.S.E. Collins, R. Harder, E. Maxey, J. Wingert, A. Singer, S. Hy, P. Mulvaney, P. Zapol, O.G. Shpyrko, "Avalanching strain dynamics during the hydriding phase transformation in individual palladium nanoparticles," Nat. Commun. 6, 10092-1 (2015). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10092

This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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