Manipulation of the crystalline phase diagram of hydrogen through nanoscale confinement effects in porous carbons

Condensed phases of molecular hydrogen (H₂) are highly desired for clean energy applications ranging from hydrogen storage to nuclear fusion and superconductive energy storage. However, in bulk hydrogen, such dense phases typically only form at exceedingly low temperatures or extremely high (typically hundreds of GPa) pressures. Here, confinement of H₂ within nanoporous materials is shown to significantly manipulate the hydrogen phase diagram leading to preferential stabilization of unusual crystalline H₂ phases. Using pressure and temperature-dependent neutron scattering at pressures between 200-2000 bar (0.02-0.2 GPa) and temperatures between 10-77 K to map out the phase diagram of H₂ when confined inside both meso- and microporous carbons, we conclusively demonstrate the preferential stabilisation of face-centred cubic (FCC) solid ortho-H₂ in microporous carbons, at temperatures five times higher than would be possible in bulk H₂. Through examination of nanoconfined H₂ rotational dynamics, preferential adsorption and spin trapping of ortho-H₂, as well as the loss of rotational energy and severe restriction of rotational degrees of freedom caused by the unique micropore environments, are shown to result in changes to phase behaviour. This work provides a general strategy for further manipulation of the H₂ phase diagram via nanoconfinement effects, and for tuning of anisotropic potential through control of confining material composition and pore size. This approach could potentially provide lower energy routes to the formation and study of more exotic non-equilibrium condensed phases of hydrogen that could be useful for a wide range of energy applications.

Neutron spectroscopy study of the diffusivity of hydrogen in MoS2

The diffusion of hydrogen adsorbed inside layered MoS₂ crystals has been studied by means of quasi-elastic neutron scattering, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy, nuclear reaction analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The neutron time-of-flight and neutron spin-echo measurements demonstrate fast diffusion of hydrogen molecules parallel to the basal planes of the two dimensional crystal planes. At room temperature and above, this intra-layer diffusion is of a similar speed to the surface diffusion that has been observed in earlier studies for hydrogen atoms on Pt surfaces. A significantly slower hydrogen diffusion was observed perpendicular to the basal planes using nuclear reaction analysis.

Effects of Confinement and Pressure on the Vibrational Behavior of Nano-Confined Propane

Fluids confined in nanopores exhibit significant deviations in their structure and dynamics from the bulk behavior. Although phase, structural, and diffusive behaviors of confined fluids have been investigated and reported extensively, confinement effects on the vibrational properties are less understood. We study the vibrational behavior of propane confined in 1.5 nm nanopores of MCM-41-S using inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Vibrational spectra have been obtained from INS data as functions of temperature and pressure. At ambient pressure, a strong quasielastic signal observed in the INS spectrum at 80 K suggests that confined propane remains liquid below the bulk phase melting point of 85 K. The quasielastic signal is heavily suppressed when either the pressure is increased to 1 kbar or the temperature is lowered to 30 K, indicating solidification of pore-confined propane. Confinement in MCM-41-S pores results in a glass-like state of propane that exhibits a relatively featureless low-energy vibrational spectrum compared to that of the bulk crystalline propane. Increasing the pressure to 3 kbar results in hardening of the intermolecular and methyl torsional modes. The INS data are used for estimating the isochoric specific heat of confined propane, which is compared with the specific heat of bulk propane reported in literature. Data from MD simulations are used to calculate the vibrational power spectra that agree qualitatively with the experimental data. Simulation data also suggest a reduction of the structural ordering (positional, orientational, and intramolecular) of propane under confinement.