Defect-enabled fast gas encapsulation into water lattices for innovative energy storage and decarbonization

Non-polar gases do not mix well with liquid water, but they can be incorporated massively in solid water lattices and create gas-carrying water structures called gas hydrates. Nature showcases this extraordinary gas/water incorporation through multi-trillion tones of methane solidified in natural hydrates on seafloors. Laboratory experiments successfully produced gas hydrates containing ~5 wt% of hydrogen, 15 wt% of methane, and 30 wt% of CO2. Such water-based gas carriers hold great promise for energy storage and CO2 sequestration, taking the advantages of water as a sustainable feedstock. However, the slow gas encapsulation in water lattices hinders real-world applications. We present a novel defect-engineering concept for tailoring gas uptake in water lattices. We elaborate microscopic views of dopant-induced defects in water lattices, reveal an intrinsic link between the engineered defects and gas encapsulation kinetics, and provide a path-opening concept of defect engineering for efficient gas encapsulation in solid water lattices for energy storage and decarbonization applications.