Magnesium nanocrystals embedded in a metal-organic framework: hybrid hydrogen storage with synergistic effect on physi- and chemisorption.

Hexagonal-disk-shaped magnesium nanocrystals (MgNCs) are fabricated within a porous metal-organic framework (MOF, see picture). The MgNCs@MOF stores hydrogen by both physi- and chemisorptions, exhibiting synergistic effects to decrease the isosteric heat of H(2) physisorption compared with that of pristine MOF, and decrease the H(2) chemisorption/desorption temperatures by 200 K compared with those of bare Mg powder.