Gaseous sorption and electrochemical properties of rare-earth hydrogen storage alloys and their representative applications: A review of recent progress

The improvement of hydrogen storage materials is a key issue for storage and delivery of hydrogen energy before its potential can be realized. As hydrogen storage media, rare-earth hydrogen storage materials have been systematically studied in order to improve storage capacity, kinetics, thermodynamics and electrochemical performance. In this review, we focus on recent research progress of gaseous sorption and electrochemical hydrogen storage properties of rare-earth alloys and highlight their commercial applications including hydrogen storage tanks and nickel metal hydride batteries. Furthermore, development trend and prospective of rare-earth hydrogen storage materials are discussed.