A feasibility study to assess the potential of organic crystals as hydrogen storage materials.

Completed

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen, Hydrogen storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor N McKeown
Chemistry
Cardiff University

Standard

EPSRC

01 October 2007

31 March 2009

18 months

£193,830

Materials sciences

Wales

Energy -- Energy Research Capacity

Professor N McKeown, Chemistry, Cardiff University

Professor KDM Harris, Chemistry, Cardiff University

We seek to open a new research area to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in energy-related technology: hydrogen storage. It has been known for over a century that many rigid organic compounds form crystals that trap solvent molecules within their structures (termed clathrates or inclusion compounds). We believe that removal of the solvent from carefully selected crystals will provide microporous materials of a structure that is perfectly suited to the efficient storage of hydrogen byadsorption. This proposal is high risk because the removal of included solvent from organic crystals often results in the collapse of the structure, however, very recent work has shown that this is not necessarily the case for all clathrates. We plan to investigate six promising crystals, which if stable, will provide very significant loadings of hydrogen under target conditions. The considerable combined expertise of the investigators in the field of organic crystals will assist in these studies and represents an involvement of new expertise to a challenging area of energy research. A successful research programme will lead to IP protection of the concept and then dissemination of the results in high-impact journals. A close collaboration with the engineering division of a major car manufacturer provides guidance on materials requirements and a potential route to commercial exploitation

20/08/07