Eco Factor: Material to store hydrogen at room temperature without wasting energy.
Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has just won a $30,000 student prize for a new super-material based on graphene that is capable of storing large amounts hydrogen at room temperature. The material is being claimed to store about twice the amount of hydrogen than the DOE’s ultimate target of 7.5 percent.
The material is very close to the holy grail of hydrogen storage that would be a material that collects huge amounts of hydrogen in a lightweight and compact form at room temperature. Up to now the available technologies were either termed too dangerous for use in automobiles or consumed a lot of energy.
Javad combined mechanical grinding, plasma treatment and annealing to maximize graphene’s hydrogen storage capacity. The nanoscopic graphene molecules are arranged in a chain-like fence structure that provides an extremely high surface area for hydrogen molecules to be stored.
Via: Gas2
