An evolving energy solution: Intermediate hydrogen storage

With the perpetual depletion of non-renewable sources of energy, the need of the hour is to look for alternative greener sources of energy. Hydrogen has emerged as an efficient, safe and versatile energy carrier. The storage and transportation of hydrogen is a problem that needs to be addressed in order to use hydrogen for practical applications. This review focuses on intermediate hydrogen storage which provides a balance between physical and chemical hydrogen storage. An optimum hydrogen adsorption energy at near ambient temperatures (0.2-0.3 eV), reversible hydrogen storage and fast adsorption and desorption kinetics are the advantages offered by intermediate hydrogen storage materials. The review discusses the recent synthetic and computational approaches for storage of hydrogen in 2D materials and inorganic nanostructured compounds.