The impact of carbon materials on the hydrogen storage properties of light metal hydrides
- 9 November 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Journal of Materials Chemistry
- Vol. 21 (8), 2417-2427
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c0jm02593c
Abstract
The safe and efficient storage of hydrogen is still one of the remaining challenges towards fuel cell powered cars. Metal hydrides are a promising class of materials as they allow the storage of large amounts of hydrogen in a small volume at room temperature and low pressures. However, usually the kinetics of hydrogen release and uptake and the thermodynamic properties do not satisfy the requirements for practical applications. Therefore current research focuses on catalysis and the thermodynamic tailoring of metal hydride systems. Surprisingly, carbon materials used as additive or support are very effective to improve the hydrogen storage properties of metal hydrides allowing fast kinetics and even a change in the thermodynamic properties. Even though the underlying mechanisms are not always well understood, the beneficial effect is probably related to the peculiar structure of the carbon materials. This feature article gives an introduction to the different carbon materials, an overview of the preparation strategies to synthesize carbon/hydride nanocomposites, and highlights the beneficial effect of carbon by discussing two important hydrides: MgH2 and NaAlH4.Keywords
This publication has 94 references indexed in Scilit:
- Impact of nanostructuring on the enthalpy of formation of metal hydridesInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2008
- Sodium Alanate Nanoparticles − Linking Size to Hydrogen Storage PropertiesJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2008
- Size effects on the hydrogen storage properties of nanostructured metal hydrides: A reviewInternational Journal of Energy Research, 2007
- Carbon aerogels, cryogels and xerogels: Influence of the drying method on the textural properties of porous carbon materialsCarbon, 2005
- Confinement of Mg−MgH2 Systems into Carbon Nanotubes Changes Hydrogen Sorption EnergeticsThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2005
- Specification for a standard procedure of X-ray diffraction measurements on carbon materialsCarbon, 2004
- Chemistry of Aerogels and Their ApplicationsChemical Reviews, 2002
- Hydrogen-storage materials for mobile applicationsNature, 2001
- Interpretation of Raman spectra of disordered and amorphous carbonPhysical Review B, 2000
- Aerogels—Airy Materials: Chemistry, Structure, and PropertiesAngewandte Chemie-International Edition, 1998