The following news release is being issued today by the U.S. Department
of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. An electronic version, with
images, can be viewed at:
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=06-25
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NEWS RELEASE
Number: 06-25
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE on Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at 9:48 a.m.
Eastern time.
Brookhaven Scientists Working Toward Practical Hydrogen-Storage
Materials
UPTON, NY - Hydrogen-storage materials hold the promise of supporting
many exciting new technologies, such as clean, efficient hydrogen fuel
cells for automobiles. At the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven
National Laboratory, scientists are working toward this goal by
studying the basic mechanisms that underlie reversible hydrogen storage
in certain materials.
Currently, a main factor limiting the development of hydrogen-based
energy technologies, such as fuel cells, is the ability to store a
sufficient amount of hydrogen in a way that allows for easy and safe
refueling. One of the most promising materials is titanium-doped sodium
alanate, a type of material known as a "complex metal hydride." Sodium
alanate, on its own, is able to store and release a reasonable amount
of hydrogen, but refueling the spent material requires it to be "doped"
with a small amount of titanium. The titanium atoms allow sodium
alanate to work efficiently at realistic temperatures and pressures.
"Our work focuses on how titanium atoms facilitate the hydrogen uptake
in sodium alanate," said Brookhaven material scientist Peter Sutter, a
member of the research team. "Understanding the atomic mechanisms that
govern this process will guide us in a targeted search for a viable
material for large-scale hydrogen storage."
A key step in the refueling process is the splitting of incoming
hydrogen molecules (hydrogen atoms tend to bind in pairs) into single
hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen then combines with aluminum and sodium to
form crystalline sodium alanate. Sutter and his colleagues predict that
the titanium atoms bind to the aluminum atoms in such a way as to
create "active sites" where hydrogen molecules are separated and
ultimately incorporated. These active sites are being studied
experimentally using scanning tunneling microscopy, a powerful imaging
technique that is able to image individual atoms at surfaces.
Erik Muller, a postdoctoral student working with Sutter and a research
associate in Brookhaven's hydrogen storage research team, will discuss
their results at the March meeting of the American Physical Society in
Baltimore, Maryland. He will give his talk at 9:48 a.m. on Wednesday,
March 15, in Room 312 of the Baltimore Convention Center.
This research is funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences within
the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.