Sorbents and Carbon-Based Materials for Hydrogen Storage R&D
The Department of Energy's research and development on sorbents and carbon-based materials for hydrogen storage targets breakthrough concepts for storing hydrogen in high-surface-area sorbents such as hybrid carbon nanotubes, aerogels, and nanofibers, as well as metal-organic frameworks and conducting polymers. A coordinated experimental and theoretical effort is underway to characterize the materials, to understand the mechanism and extent of hydrogen absorption/adsorption, and to improve the reproducibility of the measured performance. These efforts are required to obtain a realistic estimation of the potential of these materials to store and release adequate amounts of hydrogen under practical operating conditions.
Research is carried out through DOE's Hydrogen Sorption Center of Excellence and Independent Projects overseen by the Fuel Cell Technologies Program.
The status of DOE's sorbents and carbon-based materials research projects is detailed in the storage section of the Annual Progress Report.