A 2D material made of beryllium and nitrogen can hold 11.64% of its weight in hydrogen, shattering the official targets set by the US Department of Energy.
Hydrogen cars struggle to gain traction because the gas is incredibly difficult to store safely and densely. This defect-engineered BeN2 monolayer uses light-metal decoration to trap hydrogen molecules with high efficiency. The storage capacity significantly exceeds the 6.5 wt% goal that engineers have been chasing for decades. This material allows for reversible storage, meaning the hydrogen can be released and refilled multiple times without degrading the structure. Before this, most materials were either too heavy or could not hold enough fuel for practical travel. This discovery makes long-range hydrogen transportation a physical reality rather than a laboratory dream.
Defect-Engineered Beryllium Dinitride (BeN2) Monolayer with Light-Metal Decoration for Reversible High-Capacity Hydrogen Storage
arXiv · 2605.03738
Hydrogen (H2) possesses the highest gravimetric energy density of any chemical fuel and is the most abundant element in the universe. However, its extremely low volumetric energy density at standard conditions imposes a fundamental materials challenge for safe, efficient, and reversible storage. Here, we report a defect-engineered 2D beryllium dinitride (BeN2) monolayer that enables stable light-metal functionalization for high-capacity H2 storage. A 2 x 2 supercell containing two intrinsic bery