Layered graphene sheets could potentially store hydrogen safely

Washington, March 18 (ANI): A new research has determined that carbon formed into sheets a single atom thick, appears to be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, which suggests stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications.

Graphene has become something of a celebrity material in recent years due to its conductive, thermal and optical properties, which could make it useful in a range of sensors and semiconductor devices.

The material does not store hydrogen well in its original form, according to a team of scientists studying it at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.

But if oxidized graphene sheets are stacked atop one another like the decks of a multilevel parking lot, connected by molecules that both link the layers to one another and maintain space between them, the resulting graphene-oxide framework (GOF) can accumulate hydrogen in greater quantities.

Inspired to create GOFs by the metal-organic frameworks that are also under scrutiny for hydrogen storage, the team is just beginning to uncover the new structures' properties.

"No one else has ever made GOFs, to the best of our knowledge," said NIST theorist Taner Yildirim.

"What we have found so far, though, indicates GOFs can hold at least a hundred times more hydrogen molecules than ordinary graphene oxide does. The easy synthesis, low cost and non-toxicity of graphene make this material a promising candidate for gas storage applications," Yildirim added.

"The GOFs can retain 1 percent of their weight in hydrogen at a temperature of 77 degrees Kelvin and ordinary atmospheric pressure-roughly comparable to the 1.2 percent that some well-studied metal-organic frameworks can hold," Yildirim said.

Another of the team's potentially useful discoveries is the unusual relationship that GOFs exhibit between temperature and hydrogen absorption.

In most storage materials, the lower the temperature, the more hydrogen uptake normally occurs.

However, the team discovered that GOFs behave quite differently.

Although a GOF can absorb hydrogen, it does not take in significant amounts at below 50 Kelvin (-223 degrees Celsius).

Moreover, it does not release any hydrogen below this "blocking temperature" - suggesting that, with further research, GOFs might be used both to store hydrogen and to release it when it is needed, a fundamental requirement in fuel cell applications.

According to the team, GOFs will likely perform even better once the team explores their parameters in more detail. (ANI)