Chinese institute develops world’s first rechargeable hydride ion battery

Hydride ions (H⁻) have attracted attention as possible charge carriers for next-generation electrochemical devices because of their very low mass and high redox potential.

However, research progress has been slow until now since no electrolyte has yet combined the key requirements of rapid ion transport, thermal stability, and electrode compatibility.

A new study published in the Nature journal details a breakthrough by Prof. Ping Chen and his team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The researchers developed a novel core–shell hydride ion electrolyte and built the first working prototype of a rechargeable hydride ion battery.

Chinese scientists have created a new kind of battery that stores and releases energy using hydrogen ions. The technology could provide a safer alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries, according to reporting by the South China Morning Post.

The rechargeable battery, stable at room temperature, was enabled by a rare-earth-based electrolyte capable of conducting hydride ions or negatively charged hydrogen ions.

Tests showed that the device’s specific capacity—its ability to store electrical charge per unit of mass or volume—can be up to six times greater than that of certain conventional lithium-ion batteries.

“We further constructed a multilayer stacked battery to increase the battery voltage to 1.9V, which successfully lit a yellow LED light, demonstrating that a hydride ion battery can be used to power electrical devices,” the researchers reported in their paper published on September 17.

“With a wide range of hydride materials for selection and optimisation, rechargeable hydride ion batteries would offer more opportunities for various applications in clean energy storage and conversion.”

Until now, batteries and fuel cells based on pure hydride ion conduction at near-ambient temperatures had not been realised due to challenges involving stability, conductivity, and compatibility with electrodes.

The CAS team overcame these obstacles by designing a hydride compound that shows fast ion conduction under room-temperature conditions.

Whereas lithium-ion batteries rely on positively charged lithium atoms, hydride ions are formed when hydrogen atoms gain an extra electron. As negatively charged carriers, they are more reactive and energetic than ions like lithium. The “fundamentally different” electrochemical behaviour of hydride ions paves the way for entirely new battery technologies.

By Nazrin Sadigova