As a hydrogen storage material, Zr₂Fe alloy has many advantages such as fast hydrogen absorption speed, high tritium recovery efficiency, strong anti-pulverization ability, and difficulty self-igniting in air. Zr₂Fe alloy has lower hydrogen absorption pressure at room temperature than LaNi₅ alloy. Compared with the ZrVFe alloy, the hydrogen release temperature of Zr₂Fe is lower so that the material can recover hydrogen isotopes at lower hydrogen concentration efficiently. Unfortunately, the main problem of Zr₂Fe alloy in application is that a disproportionation reaction is easy to occur after hydrogen absorption at high temperature. At present, there is little research on the generation and influencing factors of a disproportionation reaction in Zr₂Fe alloy. In this paper, the effects of temperature and hydrogen pressure on the disproportionation of Zr₂Fe alloy were studied systematically. The specific activation conditions and experimental parameters for reducing alloy disproportionation are given, which provide a reference for the specific application of Zr₂Fe alloy.

Hydrogen-induced disproportionation (HID) during the cycles of absorption and desorption leads to a serious decline in the storage capacity of the ZrCo alloy, which has been recognized as the biggest obstacle to its application. Therefore, the prerequisite of a ZrCo application is to solve its anti-disproportionation problem in the field of rapid hydrogen isotope storage. Beyond surface modification and nanoball milling, this work systematically reviews the method of element substitution, which can obviously improve the anti-disproportionation. From a micro angle, as hydrogen atoms that occupy the 8e site in the ZrCoH₃ lattice are instable and are considered to be the driving force of disproportionation, researchers believe that element substitution by changing the occupation of hydrogen atoms at the 8e site can improve the anti-disproportionation of the alloy. At present, Ti/Nb substitutions for the Zr terminal among substitute elements have an excellent anti-disproportionation performance. In this work, up-to-date research studies on anti-disproportionation and its disproportionation mechanism of the ZrCo alloy are introduced by combining experiments and simulations. Moreover, the optimization of the alloy based on the occupation mechanism of 8e sites is expected to improve the anti-disproportionation of the ZrCo alloy.

The separation of mixtures of hydrogen isotopes is one of the greatest challenges of modern separation technology. A newly proposed separation mechanism, the quantum sieving (QS) effect, is expected to achieve high separation factors, the main desired properties for hydrogen isotope separation (HIS). Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and zeolites are excellent candidates to study these quantum effects because of their well-defined and tunable pore structure and the potential to introduce strong adsorption sites directly into the framework structure. This paper briefly discusses the fundamentals of QS of hydrogen isotopes in nanoporous materials, mainly including kinetic quantum sieving (KQS) and chemical affinity quantum sieving (CAQS). Recent experimental advances in the separation of hydrogen isotopes from MOFs and zeolites are highlighted.