The main obstacle for the commercial development of fuel-cell powered vehicles is the efficient storage of hydrogen. Presently, the required capacity of hydrogen storage materials for practical applications has not been met. A variety of techniques are being investigated for hydrogen storage in vehicles. One of the most promising methods is the adsorption of 2 in porous materials.
We aim to design, synthesize and evaluate new nanoporous materials for hydrogen sorption, through a combination of theoretical and experimental techniques of physics and chemistry.
Three basic steps will be needed to satisfy the final objective:
- Computational design and theoretical study of hydrogen sorption in nanoporous materials in order to propose ways to enhance its efficiency.
- Synthesis and characterization of novel porous materials that are expected (theoretically) to have high storage capacity.
- Experimental study of hydrogen sorption in the novel synthesized nanoporous materials.
The above strategy will be applied to novel nanoporous materials that belong to two categories: Nanomaterials based on intercalated graphene "Metal" Organic Frameworks (MOFs).
The proposed research methodology will lead to significant progress in:
- Development of combined theoretical and experimental approaches that will allow linking of the structure and reactivity of materials with their storage capability, targeting the design of materials with optimal capacity.
- Synthesis of new and improvement of existing materials with desired properties primarily for hydrogen storage.
- Development of materials that will approach or surpass the international set targets for hydrogen storage.