HGMS: Glasses and Nanocomposites for Hydrogen Storage.

Abstract

The primary goal of this project is to fabricate and investigate different glass systems and glass-derived nanocrystalline composite materials. These glass-based, two-phased materials will contain nanocrystals that can attract hydrogen and be of potential interest as hydrogen storage media. The glass materials with intrinsic void spaces that are able to precipitate functional nanocrystals capable to attract hydrogen are of particular interest. Proposed previously, but never practically implemented, one of promising concepts for storing hydrogen are micro-containers built of glass and shaped into hollow microspheres. The project expanded this concept to the exploration of glass-derived nanocrystalline composites as potential hydrogen storage media. It is known that the most desirable materials for hydrogen storage do not interact chemically with hydrogen and possess a high surface area to host substantial amounts of hydrogen. Glasses are built of disordered networks with ample void spaces that make them permeable to hydrogen even at room temperature. Glass-derived nanocrystalline composites (two-phased materials), combination of glasses (networks with ample voids) and functional nanocrystals (capable to attract hydrogen), appear to be promising candidates for hydrogen storage media. Key advantages of glass materials include simplicity of preparation, flexibility of composition, chemical durability, non-toxicity and mechanical strength, as well as low production costs and environmental friendliness. This project encompasses a fundamental research into physics and chemistry of glasses and nanocrystalline composite materials, derived from glass. Studies are aimed to answer questions essential for considering glass-based materials and composites as potential hydrogen storage media. Of particular interest are two-phased materials that combine glasses with intrinsic voids spaces for physisorption of hydrogen and nanocrystals capable of chemisorption. This project does not directly address any hydrogen storage technical barriers or targets in terms of numbers. Specifically, hydrogen sorption and desorption tests or kinetics measurements were not part of the project scope. However, the insights gained from these studies could help to answer fundamental questions necessary for considering glass-based materials as hydrogen storage media and could be applied indirectly towards the DOE hydrogen storage technical targets such as system weight and volume, system cost and energy density. Such questions are: Can specific macro-crystals, proven to attract hydrogen when in a macroscopic form (bulk), be nucleated in glass matrices as nanocrystals to create two-phased materials? What are suitable compositions that enable to synthetize glass-based, two-phase materials with nanocrystals that can attract hydrogen via surface or bulk interactions? What are the limits of controlling the microstructure of these materials, especially limits for nanocrystals density and size? Finally, from a technological point of view, the fabrication of glass-derived nanocomposites that we explore is a very simple, fast and inexpensive process that does not require costly or specialized equipment which is an important factor for practical applications.