A room temperature rechargeable all-solid-state hydride ion battery.

Cui, Jirong; Zou, Ren; Zhang, Weijin; Wen, Hong; Liu, Jingyao; Wang, Shangshang; Liu, Shukun; Chen, Hetong et al. · Nature · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

As a negative charge carrier, the hydride ion (H<sup>-</sup>) is more energetic, polarizable and reactive than cations<sup>1</sup>. An H<sup>-</sup>-mediated electrochemical process is fundamentally different from existing systems and enables the development of innovative electrochemical devices, such as rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, electrolysis cells and gas separation membranes<sup>2</sup>. Here we developed a core-shell hydride 3CeH<sub>3</sub>@BaH<sub>2</sub>, which exhibits fast H<sup>-</sup> conduction at ambient temperature and becomes a superionic conductor above 60 °C. This hydride allows us to construct an all-solid-state rechargeable H<sup>-</sup> battery CeH<sub>2</sub>|3CeH<sub>3</sub>@BaH<sub>2</sub>|NaAlH<sub>4</sub>, which operates at ambient conditions using NaAlH<sub>4</sub> and CeH<sub>2</sub> as cathode and anode materials, respectively. This battery has an initial specific capacity of 984 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> and retains 402 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> after 20 cycles. Using hydrogen as charge carriers can avoid the formation of detrimental metal dendrites, in principle, which creates new research avenues for clean energy storage and conversion.