For centuries, useful metals have been developed by starting with one core element and adding small amounts of other elements. Steel, for example, is composed primarily of iron; carbon is added in varied amounts to produce different grades of steel. Bronze is made up of copper and tin. These mixtures are known as alloys.
Africa already supplies several of the metals used in alloys. Yet the continent captures far less value from designing and manufacturing advanced materials than from mining the ores that make them possible. For example, the continent supplies about three-quarters of the world’s manganese, 70% of cobalt, and nearly one-fifth of global copper production, but earns less than 1% of the value created through manufacturing clean energy technologies that use these minerals.
In effect, Africa exports wealth in its rawest form and imports value in its most advanced form. Correcting this imbalance requires a shift from raw mineral exports to domestic processing, refining, advanced materials production and manufacturing. It would enable African countries to retain a greater share of economic value while accelerating industrialisation, fostering innovation, and promoting sustainable development.
A big advance in metallic materials research provides an opportunity to change the story. It focuses on high-entropy alloys, an emerging class of metallic materials that have the potential to transform Africa from a “dig-and-ship” economy to a leader in material design for hydrogen storage applications. Hydrogen storage is a clean energy issue.
Instead of one prime metal, high-entropy alloys mix many elements (typically more than three) in equal or unequal portions. These materials, when optimised, are often stronger, more resistant to heat and corrosion, and last longer than most regular alloys. For example, what’s known as Cantor alloy and its variants are very tough and resist corrosion. Their mechanical properties improve at cryogenic (very cold) temperatures, making them promising candidates for certain applications.
The scientific challenge is to predict which combinations produce useful properties. Our interdisciplinary research team brings together expertise in materials science and engineering, chemical engineering and computational materials modelling, with experience in energy materials research. We have been looking at high-entropy alloys as a solution for an urgent modern problem: how to store and transport hydrogen safely in clean energy supply chains.
We’ve reviewed computational studies to better understand how alloy composition affects hydrogen storage. Our findings show how computational techniques can speed up the identification of good hydrogen storage materials by discovering interesting metal combinations before testing them in experiments.
The goal is to store hydrogen and release it in ways that can be applied in vehicles.
Hydrogen storage in clean energy
Hydrogen is considered a clean energy carrier since it produces low emissions when used. Global hydrogen demand was about 100 million tonnes in 2024. It has the potential to grow further in the coming decades. But storing hydrogen has many challenges. It needs space, and there are safety constraints. One of the methods to store hydrogen is as a solid, where hydrogen atoms are absorbed into a metal or alloy and later released when needed.
The major advantage in this metal hydride storage is that you can store more energy in less volume, more safely, than other methods. Literature shows that high-entropy alloys can be designed to absorb more hydrogen with high stability through multiple cycles of absorbing and releasing hydrogen. They can operate at near-ambient temperatures and pressure.
Relying only on experiments to develop high-entropy alloys for hydrogen storage is impractical, however. With so many possible combinations of elements, testing each resulting alloy in the laboratory would consume lots of time and resources.
Herein lies the importance of computational materials science. Researchers can model the behaviour of atoms within a material before it is created by using techniques like density functional theory. This uses the laws of quantum physics and high-performance computing to predict the behaviour of materials at the atomic scale.
These models can forecast an alloy’s stability, structure formation and hydrogen binding strength. They allow scientists to design materials before putting them in the furnace. This method lowers costs, speeds up discovery and opens up opportunities for new avenues for research and technological innovation without large-scale experimental equipment.
By gathering current knowledge and identifying research gaps, our work provides a roadmap for the future use of high-entropy alloys for hydrogen storage.
Africa’s natural advantage and challenges
Africa is particularly well-positioned to benefit. Titanium, vanadium, chromium and manganese are just a few of the elements that are now mined throughout the continent and are used in high-entropy alloys.
However, mineral wealth alone does not ensure advanced manufacturing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes that sub-Saharan Africa still carries out little higher-value mineral processing. It faces constraints including finance, know-how, infrastructure, energy systems, transport networks and processing capacity.
The opportunity here is clear: African nations should focus on how to turn these resources into high-value alloys rather than exporting them in their raw form. This could boost industrial development and economic benefits. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to invest in research infrastructure, provide access to high-performance computing, and foster more cooperation between the private sector, government and academic institutions.
- is an Associate professor, University of the Witwatersrand
- is a Senior scientist, National Physical Laboratory
- is an Assistant professor, Sudan University of Science and Technology
- This article first appeared in The Conversation
