Nanostructured Polymeric Materials for Hydrogen Storage

Hydrogen molecules (green spheres) are absorbed inside of layered polymeric storage material.

On-board hydrogen storage is critical to the development of future transportation technologies, such as H₂-powered fuel cell vehicles, in the new hydrogen-based economy. To be practical, the 2010 performance targets of the hydrogen storage system set by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) include a gravimetric capacity of at least 0.06 kg H₂/kg and a volumetric capacity of 0.045 kg H₂/L at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the adsorbent cost must be less than $4/kWh. No current technology meets these goals. At Argonne National Laboratory, we are developing nanostructured polymeric materials as the non-dissociative hydrogen adsorbents for the transportation application. The successful outcome of this research could lead to a low-cost, high-capacity hydrogen storage material that can be mass-produced economically within the existing U.S. industrial infrastructure.

Argonne's Research

Scott Kirklin, a co-op student researcher, closely examines a polymer sample before characterizing its surface structure.

Argonne's hydrogen storage material research is funded by DOE's Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies with the participation of the University of Chicago (U of C) as a subcontractor. Argonne/U of C Team is also a member of DOE's H2 Sorption Center of Excellence (CoE). The objective of the team is to develop the nanostructured porous polymers as the new, phsisorption based hydrogen storage materials. The approach is based on a preliminary study through a successful collaboration between Argonne and The University of Chicago that led the demonstration of a porous polymer with promising gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen uptake capacities. The polymer also showed excellent repeatability and stability in multiple uptake-discharge cycles. The current research will focus on multi-discipline, interactive approach to improve the polymer adsorbents for reaching DOE's storage capacity targets. A unique set of design principles will be applied to guide the exploration of the new structure and preparation method. Advanced X-ray characterization technique and theoretical modeling tools will be employed to gain in-depth understanding of the H2-polymer interaction using the state-of-the-art facilities at Argonne. The knowledge gained through the structure-property relationship study will steer the development effort in polymer design and synthesis optimization, as well as post-synthesis treatment. The team will also collaborate closely with other members of CoE for better leverage of knowledge and expertise in hydrogen storage technology. The scale-up analysis and commercialization roadmap development with interested industrial partners will also be carried out.

Advanced Hydrogen Storage Systems Analysis
Argonne is conducting analyses of advanced materials, concepts and hybrid approaches for hydrogen storage. Activities include:

Model and analyze developmental hydrogen storage systems
Expand software packages developed at Argonne
Provide independent analyses of hydrogen storage options for DOE
Coordinate biannual meetings of the Hydrogen Storage Systems Analysis Working Group.