Nanosized ammonia borane for solid-state hydrogen storage: Outcomes,limitations, challenges and opportunities

Ammonia borane NH₃BH₃ (AB), a material for solid-state hydrogen storage, can be nanosized by confinement into the porosity of a scaffold like mesoporous silica, carbon cryogel, graphene oxide, ZIF-8 as a metal organic framework, poly (methyl acrylate), boron nitride and manganese oxide. In doing so, nanosized AB is destabilized and shows better dehydrogenation properties than bulk AB in terms of temperature, activation energy, enthalpy and kinetics. Such improvements are due to the confinement-driven nanosizing effect, but not only. A catalytic effect may also have a contribution and, in some cases, it even overpasses the nanosizing effect. These effects are explained in detail herein. The present review aims at reporting the outcomes of the AB confinement strategy to help understand the advantages and to identify the limitations which are still not adequately defined. Based on this analysis, the challenges ahead are listed and discussed, and it appears that there are new opportunities to explore. Though nanosized AB is not mature enough for implementation, it has the potential to be developed further. Avenues worth exploring are given.