Metal hydrides with enhanced thermodynamic stability with respect to the associated binary hydrides are useful for high temperature applications in which highly stable materials with low hydrogen overpressures are desired. Though several examples of complex transition metal hydrides (CTMHs) with such enhanced stability are known, little thermodynamic or phase stability information is available for this materials class. In this work, we use semiautomated thermodynamic and phase diagram calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) and grand canonical linear programming (GCLP) methods to screen 102 ternary and quaternary CTMHs and 26 ternary saline hydrides in a library of over 260 metals, intermetallics, binary, and higher hydrides to identify materials that release hydrogen at higher temperatures than the associated binary hydrides and at elevated temperatures, T > 1000 K, for 1 bar H2 overpressure. For computational efficiency, we employ a tiered screening approach based first on solid phase ground state energies with temperature effects controlled via H2 gas alone and second on the inclusion of phonon calculations that correct solid phase free energies for temperature-dependent vibrational contributions. We successfully identified 13 candidate CTMHs including Eu2RuH6, Yb2RuH6, Ca2RuH6, Ca2OsH6, Ba2RuH6, Ba3Ir2H12, Li4RhH4, NaPd3H2, Cs2PtH4, K2PtH4, Cs3PtH5, Cs3PdH3, and Rb2PtH4. The most stable CTMHs tend to crystallize in the Sr2RuH6 cubic prototype structure and decompose to the pure elements and hydrogen rather than to intermetallic phases.

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Computational methods that characterize the thermodynamic properties of metal hydrides that operate at high temperatures, i.e., T > 800 K, are desirable for a variety of applications, including nuclear fuels and energy storage. Ternary hydrides tend to be less thermodynamically stable than the strongest binary hydride that forms from the metals. In this paper we use first-principles methods based on density functional theory, phonon calculations, and grand potential minimization to predict the isobaric phase diagram for 0 K ≤ T ≤ 2000 K for the Th–Zr–H element space, which is of interest given that ThZr2H x ternary hydrides have been reported with an enhanced stability relative to the binary hydrides. We compute free energies including vibrational contributions for Th, Zr, ThH2, Th4H15, ZrH2, ThZr2, ThZr2H6, and ThZr2H7. We develop a cluster analysis method that efficiently computes the configurational entropy for ThZr2H6 interstitial hydride and conclude that the configurational entropy is not a major driver for the enhanced stability of ThZr2H6 relative to the binary hydrides. Density functional theory (DFT) predicted thermodynamic stabilities for the hydride phases are in reasonable agreement with experimental values. ThZr2H6 is stabilized by finite temperature vibrational effects, and ThZr2H7 is not predicted to be stable at any studied temperature or pressure.

CONSPECTUS: Not only is hydrogen critical for current chemical and refining processes, it is also projected to be an important energy carrier for future green energy systems such as fuel cell vehicles. Scientists have examined light metal hydrides for this purpose, which need to have both good thermodynamic properties and fast charging/discharging kinetics. The properties of hydrogen in metals are also important in the development of membranes for hydrogen purification. In this Account, we highlight our recent work aimed at the large scale screening of metal-based systems with either favorable hydrogen capacities and thermodynamics for hydrogen storage in metal hydrides for use in onboard fuel cell vehicles or promising hydrogen permeabilities relative to pure Pd for hydrogen separation from high temperature mixed gas streams using dense metal membranes. Previously, chemists have found that the metal hydrides need to hit a stability sweet spot: if the compound is too stable, it will not release enough hydrogen under low temperatures; if the compound is too unstable, the reaction may not be reversible under practical conditions. Fortunately, we can use DFT-based methods to assess this stability via prediction of thermodynamic properties, equilibrium reaction pathways, and phase diagrams for candidate metal hydride systems with reasonable accuracy using only proposed crystal structures and compositions as inputs. We have efficiently screened millions of mixtures of pure metals, metal hydrides, and alloys to identify promising reaction schemes via the grand canonical linear programming method. Pure Pd and Pd-based membranes have ideal hydrogen selectivities over other gases but suffer shortcomings such as sensitivity to sulfur poisoning and hydrogen embrittlement. Using a combination of detailed DFT, Monte Carlo techniques, and simplified models, we are able to accurately predict hydrogen permeabilities of metal membranes and screen large libraries of candidate alloys, selections of which are described in this Account. To further increase the number of membrane materials that can be studied with DFT, computational costs need to be reduced either through methods development to break bottlenecks in the performance prediction algorithm, particularly related to transition state identification, or through screening techniques that take advantage of correlations to bypass constraints.

Metal hydrides with high thermodynamic stability are desirable for high-temperature applications, such as those that require high hydrogen release temperatures or low hydrogen overpressures. First-principles calculations have been used previously to identify complex transition metal hydrides (CTMHs) for high temperature use by screening materials with experimentally known structures. Here, we extend our previous screening of CTMHs with a library of 149 proposed materials based on known prototype structures and charge balancing rules. These proposed materials are typically related to known materials by cation substitution. Our semiautomated, high-throughput screening uses density functional theory (DFT) and grand canonical linear programming (GCLP) methods to compute thermodynamic properties and phase diagrams: 81 of the 149 materials are found to be thermodynamically stable. We identified seven proposed materials that release hydrogen at higher temperatures than the associated binary hydrides and at high temperature, T > 1000 K, for 1 bar H2 overpressure. Our results indicate that there are many novel CTMH compounds that are thermodynamically stable, and the computed thermodynamic data and phase diagrams should be useful for selecting materials and operating parameters for high temperature metal hydride applications.