SBIR Phase I: Diamondoid-Containing Carbon Nanostructures as Hydrogen Storage Materials

这项小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发一种新型的钻石状/促进剂/碳质纳米结构，通过同时增加其孔径和氢结合能力来增强其储氢能力，作为潜在的车载储氢材料。开发紧凑、轻便、安全、价格合理的车载储氢介质是最终实现氢气作为运输燃料的关键一步。研究表明，作为车载储氢材料，室温下纯净的、未掺杂的单壁碳纳米管不能满足目标标准。一期工程的成功可以证明，增加碳材料的可用表面积和增加结合能的“混合”方法可以提高碳基纳米材料的吸氢能力，从而为氢燃料在运输中的应用开辟一条商业可行的途径。车载储氢材料的成功开发将极大地促进国内的“氢经济”。氢气是一种可再生的清洁能源，作为交通工具或其他移动电源的燃料，不仅有利于国民经济，而且有利于国家能源安全和环境保护。因此，可以预见，如果这种生产新型车载储氢材料的方法的可行性得到成功验证，将引起工业界、政府和学术界的强烈兴趣。该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公共法律111-5)资助。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims at developing a novel diamondoid/promoter/carbonaceous nanostructure with enhanced hydrogen storage capability, through simultaneously increasing their pore sizes and hydrogen binding abilities, as potential on-board hydrogen storage materials. Developing compact, lightweight, safe and affordable on-board hydrogen storage media is a crucial step towards the eventual implementation of hydrogen as transportation fuel. It has been demonstrated that a pure, undoped carbon single-walled nanotube at room temperature cannot meet the targeted criterion as the on-board hydrogen storage materials. The success of this Phase I project could demonstrate that a "hybrid" approach including increasing available surface areas and increasing binding energies of carbonaceous materials could enhance the hydrogen uptake capacity of carbon-based nanomaterials and thus could lead to a commercially viable pathway for hydrogen fuel application in transportation.Successful development of on-board hydrogen storage materials will greatly boost the domestic "Hydrogen Economy." Utilization of hydrogen, a renewable and clean energy, as fuel for transportation vehicles or other mobile power supplies will greatly benefit not only the national economy but also the national energy security and environmental protection. Therefore, it can be anticipated that intense interest will be drawn from industry and government as well as academia if the feasibility of the approach for producing novel on-board hydrogen storage materials is successfully validated.This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).