Biological impact tests on complex hydrides used as hydrogen storage materials

Abstract The mutagenicity of a series of the light element hydrides (containing NaAlH 4 , Mg(NH 2 ) 2 , LiBH 4 , etc.) was examined by evaluating the frequency of mutation in bacterial DNAs. Although some materials were suspected to be slightly mutagenic, their effect was much less malignant than that of well-known potent mutagens. The hydrides exhibited high cytotoxicity, rather than mutagenicity. A Mg(NH 2 ) 2 -related material was also subjected to a series of toxicity tests on aqueous organisms, i.e. , algae, water fleas and fish. The result suggests that the material is as toxic as alkaline metal hydroxides, such as NaOH and KOH.