Metal-Containing Organic and Carbon Aerogels for Hydrogen Storage

摘要

This document and the accompanying manuscript summarize the technical accomplishments of our one-year LDRD-ER effort. Hydrogen storage and hydrogen fuel cells are important components of the 2003 Hydrogen Fuel Initiative focused on the reduction of Americas dependence on oil. To compete with oil as an energy source, however, one must be able to transport and utilize hydrogen at or above the target set by DOE (6 wt.% H2) for the transportation sector. Other than liquid hydrogen, current technology falls well short of this DOE target. As a result, a variety of materials have recently been investigated to address this issue. Carbon nanostructures have received significant attention as hydrogen storage materials due to their low molecular weight, tunable microporosity and high specific surface areas. For example, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) achieved 5 to 10 wt.% H2 storage using metal-doped carbon nanotubes. That study showed that the intimate mix of metal nanoparticles with graphitic carbon resulted in the unanticipated hydrogen adsorption at near ambient conditions. The focus of our LDRD effort was the investigation of metal-doped carbon aerogels (MDCAs) as hydrogen storage materials.