Microporous metal organic materials: Promising candidates as sorbents for hydrogen storage

Materials that effectively store hydrogen are needed for use in fuel cell powered vehicles. Among the various candidate storage technologies including porous sorbents, reversible metal hydrides, chemical hydrides, compressed gas, and liquefaction, none is capable of meeting the DOE cost and performance targets.1 Porous metal coordination structures represent a promising new entry to the field of hydrogen storage materials.2 To fully exploit this new field, relationships between structure and storage properties must be developed to guide the further rational design and synthesis of tailored materials with significantly improved hydrogen adsorption capability. In this light, we have explored a new type of sorbent, microporous metal coordination materials (MMOMs) with pore dimensions comparable to the length scale of the molecular diameter of hydrogen. The MMOMs share physical characteristics similar to those o