Thermal effects in dynamic storage of hydrogen by adsorption

Materials towards carbon-free, emission-free and oil-free mobility: hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles--now and in the future

In the past, material innovation has changed society through new material-induced technologies, adding a new value to society. In the present world, engineers and scientists are expected to invent new materials to solve the global problem of climate change. For the transport sector, the challenge for material engineers is to change the oil-based world into a sustainable world. After witnessing the recent high oil price and its adverse impact on the global economy, it is time to accelerate our efforts towards this change. Industries are tackling global energy issues such as oil and CO2, as well as local environmental problems, such as NO(x) and particulate matter. Hydrogen is the most promising candidate to provide carbon-free, emission-free and oil-free mobility. As such, engineers are working very hard to bring this technology into the real society. This paper describes recent progress of vehicle technologies, as well as hydrogen-storage technologies to extend the cruise range and ensure the easiness of refuelling and requesting material scientists to collaborate with industry to fight against global warming.

Adsorption of Spillover Hydrogen Atoms on Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Spillover of hydrogen on nanostructured carbons is a phenomenon that is critical to understand in order to produce efficient hydrogen storage adsorbents for fuel cell applications. The spillover and interaction of atomic hydrogen with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is the focus of this combined theoretical and experimental work. To understand the spillover mechanism, very low occupancies (i.e., 1 and 2 H atoms adsorbed) on (5,0), (7,0), (9,0) zigzag (semiconducting) SWNTs and a (5,5) armchair (metallic) SWNT, with corresponding diameters of 3.9, 5.5, 7.0, and 6.8 A, were investigated. The adsorption binding energy of H atoms depends on H occupancy, tube diameter, and helicity (or chirality), as well as endohedral (interior) vs exohedral (exterior) binding. Exohedral binding energies are substantially higher than endohedral binding energies due to easier sp(2)-sp(3) transition in hybridization of carbon on exterior walls upon binding. A binding energy as low as -8.9 kcal/mol is obtained for 2H atoms on the exterior wall of a (5, 0) SWNT. The binding energies of H atoms on the metallic SWNT are significantly weaker (about 23 kcal/mol weaker) than that on the semiconductor SWNT, for both endohedral and exohedral adsorption. The binding energy is generally higher on SWNTs of larger diameters, while its dependence on H occupancy is relatively weak except at very low occupancies. Experimental results at 298 K and for pressures up to 10 MPa with a carbon-bridged composite material containing SWNTs demonstrate the presence of multiple adsorption sites based on desorption hysteresis for the spiltover H on SWNTs, and the experimental results were in qualitative agreement with the molecular orbital calculation results.

Hydrogen storage in nanostructured carbons by spillover: bridge-building enhancement

The hydrogen storage capacity in nanostructured carbon materials can be increased by atomic hydrogen spillover from a supported catalyst. A simple and effective technique was developed to build carbon bridges that serve to improve contact between a spillover source and a secondary receptor. In this work, a supported catalyst (Pd-C) served as the source of hydrogen atoms via dissociation and primary spillover and AX-21 or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were secondary spillover receptors. By carbonizing a bridge-forming precursor in the presence of the components, the hydrogen adsorption amount was increased by a factor of 2.9 for the AX-21 receptor and 1.6 for the SWNT receptor at 298 K and 100 kPa. Similar results were obtained at 10 MPa, indicating that the enhancement factor is a weak function of pressure. The AX-21 receptor with carbon bridges had the highest absolute capacity of 1.8 wt % at 298 K and 10 MPa. Reversibility was demonstrated through desorption and readsorption at 298 K. The bridge-building process appears to be receptor specific, and optimization may yield even greater enhancement. Using this technique, enhancements in storage of up to 17-fold on other carbon-based materials have been observed and will be reported elsewhere shortly.