Boron Nitride for Hydrogen Storage

International audienceBoron nitride, BN, for hydrogen storage emerged in the beginning of the millennium and there swiftly followed more than 15 years of efforts combining experimental laboratory works and to a greater extent computational predictions. BN has been considered mainly for the storage of molecular hydrogen, H-2, by physisorption and/or chemisorption over a wide range of temperatures, that is, between -196 degrees C and 300 degrees C. Yet its potential has gone beyond the sorption of H-2 as it has been also, although less extensively, involved in chemical H storage. The present review aims at giving a comprehensive overview of the main experimental results and findings as well as of the different avenues worth being explored. A key lesson of this survey is that boron nitride may turn out to be a promising material for hydrogen storage at room conditions provided all the predictions come true. The "ball" is now in the lab experimenters' court