Advanced research on hydrogen storage materials using synchrotron radiation light sources

Machida, Akihiko; Aoki, Katsutoshi

Science and technology concerning hydrogen storage materials are advancing towards the nanometer scale. X-rays, which have wave lengths matched to this length scale, are an ideal tool to study materials in nanometer scale. SPring-8, the world-biggest synchrotron radiation facility, provides ultra-brilliant, high-directional, polarized and pulsed X-rays. These excellent lights enable us to investigate precisely, accurately and even time dependently the structural and electronic properties of materials on hydrogenation and/or dehydrogenation. We present the synchrotron radiation based X-rays experiments that are powerful and useful particularly for the functional study of hydrogen storage materials. The latest results on metal hydrides are presented as example.