mole h the heat of hydride formation of an alloy in the third group of the materials having a composition represented by the formula a suitable alloy in this group should have a value of h h in the range of between 3 5 and 9 0 kcal mole h and preferably between 4 5 and 8 5 kcal mole h the heat of hydride formation of an alloy in the fourth group of the material having a composition represented by the formula a suitable alloy in this group should have a value of h h in the range between 3 5 and 9 0 kcal mole h and preferably between 4 5 and 8 5 kcal mole h the multicomponent alloy in accordance with the present invention can be prepared by induction heating arc or plasma melting under an inert atmosphere a higher temperature as well as several remelting runs will be useful to obtian iadd obtain iaddend a more homogeneous material a small amount of alkalai metal or alkaline earth can be used as a deoxidizing agent during the melting process to store gaseous phase hydrogen the active materials of the invention can be charged at 100 to 300 p s i hydrogen after the air in the whole system has been evacuated moderate temperature of between 100 to 200 degrees centigrade will accelerate the hydriding.