Enhanced hydrogen storage performance by incorporating triply periodic minimal surface into metal hydride reactor

Metal hydrides (MH) are potential solid-state hydrogen storage materials due to their high density and safety, but their low thermal conductivity limits application, necessitating effective thermal management. Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) is well-known for its high specific surface area and potential in thermal engineering applications. Hence, this study investigates and compares the hydrogen storage and heat transfer performance of incorporating TPMS (sheet-Gyroid and solid-Gyroid) into MH reactor. The results reveal that TPMS significantly improves hydrogen storage and heat transfer performance of MH reactor. MH reactors incorporating TPMS reached 1.2 wt% hydrogen mass fraction 23.40% faster than conventional ones. For metallic constituent materials, the MH reactor with solid-Gyroid has stronger hydrogen absorption capacity and lower average bed temperature compared to the sheet-Gyroid. In addition, the hydrogen storage performance of the MH reactor is almost unchanged as the number of unit cells increases with constrained unit size. This demonstrates that MH reactor with TPMS has significant application potential as a large-scale hydrogen vessel.