Feathers hold hydrogen promise

摘要

Need a cheap way to store hydrogen? Put chicken feathers in your tank. The unlikely material may one day compete with more high-tech solutions such as carbon nanotubes for storing hydrogen for fuel-cell-powered vehicles. Hydrogen is difficult to store safely in a tank because it is potentially explosive. So researchers are looking for materials that can stabilise hydrogen by weakly bonding with it. Richard Wool's team at the University of Delaware in Newark heated chicken feather fibres to 400 ℃ without burning.