Many potential applications have been proposed for carbon nanotubes, including conductive and high-strength composites; energy storage and energy conversion devices; sensors; field emission displays and radiation sources; hydrogen storage media; and nanometer-sized semiconductor devices, probes, and interconnects. Some of these applications are now realized in products. Others are demonstrated in early to advanced devices, and one, hydrogen storage, is clouded by controversy. Nanotube cost, polydispersity in nanotube type, and limitations in processing and assembly methods are important barriers for some applications of single-walled nanotubes.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/297/5582/787.full.pdf

Carbon Nanotubes--the Route Toward Applications

New materials hold the key to fundamental advances in energy conversion and storage, both of which are vital in order to meet the challenge of global warming and the finite nature of fossil fuels. Nanomaterials in particular offer unique properties or combinations of properties as electrodes and electrolytes in a range of energy devices. This review describes some recent developments in the discovery of nanoelectrolytes and nanoelectrodes for lithium batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors. The advantages and disadvantages of the nanoscale in materials design for such devices are highlighted.

https://img62.chem17.com/1/20140715/635410323829886334962.pdf

Nanostructured materials for advanced energy conversion and storage devices

Mobility — the transport of people and goods — is a socioeconomic reality that will surely increase in the coming years. It should be safe, economic and reasonably clean. Little energy needs to be expended to overcome potential energy changes, but a great deal is lost through friction (for cars about 10 kWh per 100 km) and low-efficiency energy conversion. Vehicles can be run either by connecting them to a continuous supply of energy or by storing energy on board. Hydrogen would be ideal as a synthetic fuel because it is lightweight, highly abundant and its oxidation product (water) is environmentally benign, but storage remains a problem. Here we present recent developments in the search for innovative materials with high hydrogen-storage capacity.

/pdf/hydrogen-storage-materials-for-mobile-applications-2dxdlm86hm.pdf

Hydrogen-storage materials for mobile applications

Metal-organic framework-5 (MOF-5) of composition Zn4O(BDC)3 (BDC = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate) with a cubic three-dimensional extended porous structure adsorbed hydrogen up to 4.5 weight percent (17.2 hydrogen molecules per formula unit) at 78 kelvin and 1.0 weight percent at room temperature and pressure of 20 bar. Inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy of the rotational transitions of the adsorbed hydrogen molecules indicates the presence of two well-defined binding sites (termed I and II), which we associate with hydrogen binding to zinc and the BDC linker, respectively. Preliminary studies on topologically similar isoreticular metal-organic framework-6 and -8 (IRMOF-6 and -8) having cyclobutylbenzene and naphthalene linkers, respectively, gave approximately double and quadruple (2.0 weight percent) the uptake found for MOF-5 at room temperature and 10 bar.

/pdf/hydrogen-storage-in-microporous-metal-organic-frameworks-2xcgwp5q23.pdf

Hydrogen Storage in Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks

[Liu, Chang; Li, Feng; Ma, Lai-Peng; Cheng, Hui-Ming] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China.;Cheng, HM (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, 72 Wenhua Rd, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China;cheng@imr.ac.cn

Advanced Materials for Energy Storage

Pores of molecular dimensions can adsorb large quantities of gases owing to the enhanced density of the adsorbed material inside the pores1, a consequence of the attractive potential of the pore walls. Pederson and Broughton have suggested2 that carbon nanotubes, which have diameters of typically a few nanometres, should be able to draw up liquids by capillarity, and this effect has been seen for low-surface-tension liquids in large-diameter, multi-walled nanotubes3. Here we show that a gas can condense to high density inside narrow, single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs). Temperature-programmed desorption spectrosocopy shows that hydrogen will condense inside SWNTs under conditions that do not induce adsorption within a standard mesoporous activated carbon. The very high hydrogen uptake in these materials suggests that they might be effective as a hydrogen-storage material for fuel-cell electric vehicles.

Storage of hydrogen in single-walled carbon nanotubes

Transition metal (TM) atoms bound to fullerenes are proposed as adsorbents for high density, room temperature, ambient pressure storage of hydrogen. ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ or ${\mathrm{C}}_{48}{\mathrm{B}}_{12}$ disperses TMs by charge transfer interactions to produce stable organometallic buckyballs (OBBs). A particular scandium OBB can bind as many as 11 hydrogen atoms per TM, ten of which are in the form of dihydrogen that can be adsorbed and desorbed reversibly. In this case, the calculated binding energy is about $0.3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}/{\mathrm{H}}_{2}$, which is ideal for use on board vehicles. The theoretical maximum retrievable ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ storage density is $\ensuremath{\sim}9\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{wt}\text{ }%$.

/pdf/hydrogen-storage-in-novel-organometallic-buckyballs-2576fml1m9.pdf

Hydrogen storage in novel organometallic buckyballs.

Interest in hydrogen as a fuel has grown dramatically since 1990, and many advances in hydrogen production and utilization technologies have been made. However, hydrogen storage technologies must be significantly advanced if a hydrogen based energy system, particularly in the transportation sector, is to be established. Hydrogen can be made available on-board vehicles in containers of compressed or liquefied H2, in metal hydrides, via chemical storage or by gas-on-solid adsorption. Although each method possesses desirable characteristics, no approach satisfies all of the efficiency, size, weight, cost and safety requirements for transportation or utility use. Gas-on-solid adsorption is an inherently safe and potentially high energy density hydrogen storage method that could be extremely energy efficient. Consequently, the hydrogen storage properties of high surface area “activated” carbons have been extensively studied. However, activated carbons are ineffective in storing hydrogen because only a small fraction of the pores in the typically wide pore-size distribution are small enough to interact strongly with hydrogen molecules at room temperatures and moderate pressures. Recently, many new carbon nanostructured absorbents have been produced including graphite nanofibers and carbon multi-wall and single-wall nanotubes. The following review provides a brief history of the hydrogen adsorption studies on activated carbons and comments on the recent experimental and theoretical investigations of the hydrogen adsorption properties of the new nanostructured carbon materials.

/pdf/hydrogen-storage-using-carbon-adsorbents-past-present-and-3jw6j26f1m.pdf

Hydrogen storage using carbon adsorbents: past, present and future

http://astro1.panet.utoledo.edu/~mheben/PDF/quantum_rotation_hydrogen_single_m_heben_(2000)_chem_phys_lett.pdf

Quantum rotation of hydrogen in single-wall carbon nanotubes

The effect of thermal annealing and surface coverage on porous silicon photoluminescence was studied in situ in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber. These investigations correlated simultaneously temperature, surface coverage, and photoluminescence intensity. The surface coverage was monitored using transmission Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that the photoluminescence could not be defined only according to the presence of SiH2 surface species. Likewise, the disappearance of the photoluminescence versus thermal annealing did not scale directly with H2 desorption from SiH2 species. The loss of photoluminescence versus thermal annealing was attributed to surface structural changes or the production of surface states which provide pathways for nonradiative recombination.

A. C. Dillon

Papers

Storage of hydrogen in single-walled carbon nanotubes

Hydrogen storage in novel organometallic buckyballs.

Hydrogen storage using carbon adsorbents: past, present and future

Quantum rotation of hydrogen in single-wall carbon nanotubes

Effect of thermal annealing and surface coverage on porous silicon photoluminescence