APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:

• Solid-based storage and capture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide or other gases

ADVANTAGES:

• Promises higher storage capacity than carbon materials, better environmental stability than metal-organic, and faster kinetics than direct use of metal hydrides
• Demonstrated fabrication of discs 20 inches in diameter

ABSTRACT:

Arlon Hunt and Samuel Mao and colleagues at Berkeley Lab have developed a new class of hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) storage materials with favorable storage capacities under conditions suitable for on-board vehicle use. The inventors are the first to use an oxide aerogel medium as the basic nanostructured framework for solid-based hydrogen and CO2 storage and capture. The highly porous medium is subjected to vapor infiltration with metal hydride or carbon to form a linked three-dimensional network of nanostructures.

The new Berkeley Lab materials take advantage of the high formula storage capacities of metal hydrides, for example, while overcoming their slow sorption kinetics and the need for high temperature desorption by incorporating the hydrides into an nanostructured template.

STATUS:

• Published PCT Patent Application WO2008/147916 available at www.wipo.int. Available for licensing or collaborative research.

REFERENCE NUMBER: IB-2303

SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:

• Improved Electrode-Electrode Structures for Solid State Electrochemical Device, IB-1405