Hydrogen permeation behavior of rubber sealing materials for hydrogen infrastructure: Recent advances and perspectives

Rubber seals are crucial components for hydrogen infrastructure, but their long-term exposure to the hydrogen environment can result in hydrogen damage due to hydrogen permeation, and may even lead to seal failure, posing serious safety hazards. Thus, it is necessary to explore the hydrogen permeation behavior of rubber materials. In this review, the permeation process and permeation parameters of hydrogen in the rubber are introduced first, and then the hydrogen permeation mechanism is expounded. Subsequently, the factors of total hydrogen pressure, temperature, filler characteristics, crosslink density and material polarity on the hydrogen permeation of rubber materials are analyzed. Furthermore, three methods to strengthen the hydrogen barrier performances of rubber materials are summarized. Meanwhile, the application and research direction of rubber seals in the future hydrogen infrastructure and hydrogen economy are discussed. Eventually, experimental data on hydrogen permeation parameters of typical rubber sealing materials are counted and combed.