TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Compounds: The alkali metal hydride is lithium hydride, sodium hydride, potassium hydride, calcium hydride, magnesium hydride, lithium aluminum hydride, and/or sodium aluminum hydride.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: A second crystallization additive is added to the crystallization solution. Reacting aluminum trichloride and an alkali metal hydride to form an alane-ether complex solution comprises reacting aluminum trichloride and the alkali metal hydride in diethyl ether or in a mixed solvent system comprising greater than 50% diethyl ether. Combining the alane-ether complex solution with the first crystallization additive-containing solution comprising combining the alane-ether complex solution with the first crystallization additive dissolved in toluene or formulating the crystallization solution to be free of an alkali metal borohydride. An aqueous diethyl ether solution may be added to the alane-ether complex solution to form a partially hydrolyzed ether/alane-ether complex solution. The partially hydrolyzed ether/alane-ether complex solution is added to the solution that comprises the first crystallization additive to form the crystallization solution. The alane-ether complex solution is combined with a solution that comprises 0.05-10 wt.% first crystallization additive to form the crystallization solution. Crystallizing alpha-alane from the crystallization solution comprises heating the crystallization solution to 80-87degreesC to reduce a volume of diethyl ether in the crystallization solution to less than 10 vol.%. Additional diethyl ether is added to the crystallization solution after reducing the volume of diethylene ether and the additional diethyl ether and the crystallization solution are heated to 88-95degreesC to produce the alpha-alane. The alpha-alane is exposed to an acidic solution comprising 10-12 vol.% hydrochloric acid.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Polymers: The second crystallization additive comprises squalene, cyclododecatriene, norbornylene, norbornadiene, a phenyl-terminated polybutadiene, 2,4-dimethyl anisole, 3,5-dimethyl anisole, 2,6-dimethyl anisole, and/or polydimethyl siloxane. EXAMPLE - A mixture of anhydrous diethyl ether (100.5 mL) and anhydrous toluene (210 mL) was cooled to -10degreesC using an ice/acetone bath. Aluminum chloride (44.25 g) was added slowly enough that the temperature did not rise above 5degreesC and no diethyl ether vapors were produced. A combination of 2.4 M lithium aluminum hydride in diethyl ether (500 mL), anhydrous diethyl ether (700 mL) and anhydrous toluene (300 mL) was added into the aluminum chloride solution. The temperature was maintained at 20degreesC. The mixture was stirred for 10 minutes and then allowed to sit so that solids settled to the bottom. The etherate solution without the solids was added to a mixture of anhydrous toluene (5000 mL) and polydimethylsiloxane (7.5 mL; 1cSt) which had been heated to 95degreesC. The alane precipitated immediately upon addition, along with the distillation of 85% of diethyl ether. Upon completion of the crystallization, the reaction mixture was cooled to 30-35degreesC. To quench the reaction, a 10% hydrochloric acid solution was added dropwise, keeping the temperature below 50degreesC. The mixture was stirred for 45-60 minutes at 35degreesC before separating the aqueous layer containing the alpha-alane and the organic layer. The aqueous layer was worked up to give alpha-alane (25 g) as small cubic-shaped crystals.