 in 2017.
“These materials establish a new high-water mark for usable hydrogen capacities in MOFs,” the study states.
Hydrogen fuel cells have long held promise as a no-emission power source for electric cars. They have, however, taken a backseat to lithium ion batteries, which you’ll find inside most of the portable electronic devices being produced today — from cell phones and tablets, to digital cameras and electric vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel cell systems have several advantages over lithium ion batteries. The most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen is far more common than lithium, so there is little chance of there ever being a supply issue.
a hydrogen fuel cell car can recharge at a station in a few minutes, about the same time it takes to fill a gas tank now. In contrast, full charge times for lithium battery electric vehicles are typically measured in hours.
There are drawbacks that have limited the auto industry’s embrace of hydrogen, however. For example, producing hydrogen currently is much more expensive than is extracting and refining petroleum.
Transportation of hydrogen fuel is another issue. As a gas, it’s difficult to move and store large quantities of hydrogen efficiently, raising questions of whether it needs to be moved in liquid form in semitrucks or shuttled through pipelines as a gas.
But the lure of what hydrogen could potentially mean for cars, and the environment, has kept major automakers like Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and GM involved in its development.
Electric vehicle designers are constantly looking to decrease the size of a car’s power system as a means of increasing efficiency. By increasing the quantity of hydrogen that can be stored in a MOF adsorbent, Siegel said, the pressure needed to store it can be reduced. The size of the tank can also be reduced.
“We want to eliminate the energy storage problem for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This shows we’re moving in that direction,” Siegel said.
Alauddin Ahmed, a research scientist in Siegel’s group, led the computational screening effort. Adam Matzger, the Charles G. Overberger Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, was also involved in the work.