Irreproducibility in hydrogen storage material research

The storage of hydrogen in materials has received a significant amount of attention in recent years because this approach is widely thought to be one of the most promising solutions to the problem of storing hydrogen for use as an alternative energy carrier in a safe, compact and affordable form. However, there have been a number of high profile cases in which erroneous or irreproducible data have been published. Meanwhile, the irreproducibility of research results in a wide range of disciplines has been the subject of an increasing amount of attention due to problems with some of the data in the literature. In this Perspective, we provide a summary of the problems that have affected hydrogen storage material research. We also discuss the reasons behind them and possible ways of reducing the likelihood of further problems occurring in the future.

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