June 27, 2007

Two NSLS Hydrogen Research Projects Receive DOE Funding

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences recently announced that it will distribute $11.2 million in awards for 13 hydrogen research proposals, including two projects to take place in part at the NSLS.

One of these studies, led by Brookhaven chemist Jose Rodriguez, will combine the efforts of scientists in the Lab’s Chemistry Department with advanced instrumentation at the NSLS and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) to better understand and improve the performance of nanocatalysts for a process known as the “water-gas shift reaction.” This reaction is a critical step in the processing of pure hydrogen for fuel cells and other industrial applications. Although these catalysts are often studied in lab environments, they actually operate at high temperature and high pressure, which alters their structure and reactivity. This research project aims to apply a suite of powerful research methods that work in the actual reaction environment, or “in situ,” to develop a better picture of how several promising nanocatalysts function, and to use this information to develop principles for new, improved catalysts with higher activity at low temperature and good stability.

The second study, led by Stony Brook University physicist Jiuhua Chen (now at Florida International University) and NSLS physicist Chi-Chang Kao, tackles the hydrogen storage issue through investigating pressure influence on a novel material, ammonia borane (H3BNH3). The ultimate goal of the project is to discover a process that can be used to recharge hydrogen fuel cells as an on-board energy source. The key requirements for any candidate hydrogen storage material in automotive applications are a high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen densities, a release of hydrogen at moderate temperatures and pressures, and a low-cost method to recharge the material back to its original state. Because ammonia borane appears to have these characteristics, the team will study the influence of pressure on the material’s structure and rehydrogenation using NSLS beamlines X17 and U2 and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Exploring possibilities to metastabilize ammonium borohydride (H4BNH4, a material that has even higher gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity than ammonia borane but is only stable below –40 degrees Celsius) to ambient condition is another challenge of the project. The research team also includes collaborators from Stanford University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

To read the DOE release, go to http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=07-X6

ARTICLE BY: Kendra Snyder