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Researchers at the University of Nottingham and General Motors in Warren, Michigan, have come up with a sponge-like material that can hold 10% of its own weight in hydrogen gas.

The need for effective hydrogen fuel tanks is a major stumbling block for the development of the "Hydrogen Economy", and there is, therefore, an urgent need for new materials that will reversibly store  and release hydrogen at high capacity. The new polymeric material prepared in Nottingham is a combination of copper(II) ions and designer organic linker molecules that combine to form a porous metal-organic framework constructed of fused complex cages.

"The 10% figure is a real number - this has been experimentally achieved," Schröder told New Scientist. A number of other hydrogen storage materials are theoretical models rather than practical realities. However, the material can only achieve that figure at 77 times atmospheric pressure and -196 °C, which limits its real-world possibilities.

"The pressure is actually not so extreme," says Schröder. "It is the temperature that is the real issue. We need to be able to achieve these uptake capacities at higher, more compatible temperatures," he says. Low temperatures are needed because the forces that hold hydrogen within the material are relatively weak. "We need to strengthen the interactions between the hydrogen gas and the porous host to achieve significant storage capacities at higher temperatures, and this is one of the goals in our current work."