Researchers at Missouri develops new hydrogen storage device

23 May 2009

Researchers at the University of Missouri have engineered carbon nanostructures so that these becomes an excellent hydrogen storage media and could be used for future hydrogen vehicles and many other energy applications. Actually it is the porosity of the carbon nanostructures that can be utilized for storing hydrogen.

Researchers found that within these carbon nanostructures the porosity is sufficient enough and sometimes the diameters of the empty spaces within these structures can range few nanometers. Carbon nanostructures has many advantages over the other targeted storage devices, however the main disadvantage of these is that the interaction energy between carbon atom and hydrogen atom is low and thereby making these storage devices is difficult especially at ambient temperature.

Researchers at Missouri have taken the job of engineering the carbon nanostructure so that more and more hydrogen is stored in the device. The researchers argue that if the binding energy of carbon and hydrogen is raised, the bond between these atoms will be strong and thereby increasing the possibility of more storage of the hydrogen.

Researchers were able to produce tiny carbon granules having large surface area of 3100 square meters per gram and at the same time the pores having deep potential well so that the ultimate nanostructure have higher binding energy. Further doping with the selected element increased the hydrogen carbon interaction and raised the storage potential of the device. The paper has been published in the Journal Nanotechnology.

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