This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Liquid hydrogen (LH₂) is attractive for long-distance energy transport because of its high volumetric energy density. But even well-insulated tanks cannot completely prevent heat from entering.
As the liquid warms, hydrogen evaporates and pressure builds, leading to boil-off losses during storage and transport. A research team led by professor Hyunchul Oh of the Department of Chemistry at UNIST investigated whether porous materials could help limit these losses. The team also included professor Hoi Ri Moon of Ewha Womans University, Dr.
Park of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany, and Dr. Mónica Jiménez-Ruiz of the Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL) in France. The researchers used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—highly porous crystalline materials—to capture evaporating hydrogen and delay its release as heat enters the tank.
The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications. MOFs contain networks of nanoscale pores that can adsorb hydrogen onto their internal surfaces. At cryogenic temperatures, interactions between hydrogen molecules and the pore walls help keep the gas confined, slowing pressure buildup.
The approach complements conventional insulation—instead of focusing only on limiting heat from entering the tank, it also changes how hydrogen responds once heat enters. The key question is whether that benefit comes at the expense of storage capacity. A porous material takes up space that would otherwise hold liquid hydrogen.
The researchers therefore compared two MOFs with very different structures—IRMOF-20, a rigid framework with a large pore volume, and MIL-53(Al), a flexible framework whose pores expand and contract as hydrogen is adsorbed. IRMOF-20 offered a particularly favorable balance. When the researchers accounted for the space occupied by the material, the system retained about 97% of the volumetric capacity of neat liquid hydrogen.
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