Conversion materials for hydrogen storage and electrochemical applications-Concepts and similarities

Conversion-based material systems seem to be the only way at the moment to increase energy densities of H storage materials and battery materials considerably. In the case of H storage materials, the complex hydrides and related reaction systems are still a matter of research. For battery materials there are promising options to increase the energy density of a battery material by a factor 5-10 but the development has just begun and no systems have been presented yet which would have an acceptable maturity for commercial applications. It will be shown that the developments of H storage materials and electrode materials have many historical and conceptual similarities and there are similar goals and challenges in the development in both areas. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.