2017 Bronze Medal Award

Dr. Hui Wu is recognized for producing an entirely new route to the synthesis of hydrogen-storage materials for fuel cells based on the complex chemistry of amines and boranes. She has developed a new class of complex hydrides that show considerable promise to finally meeting the challenge of on-board automotive hydrogen storage. She has succeeded in reducing the operating temperature to 100°C, which is very close to the waste heat temperature of hydrogen fuel cells, and she has devised novel strategies that essentially eliminate the production of the fuel-cell-catalyst poison ammonia, a challenge that was commonly believed to be insurmountable in amidoboranes and closely related materials.