STTR Phase I: Hydrogen Storage in Catalytically-modified Porous Silicon

这个STTR第一阶段项目将研究在一种由硅制成的新材料上储存氢-这种材料与用于制造太阳能电池板和计算机芯片的材料相同。这种独特的专利方法有可能在压力，温度，安全性，成本和便利性方面超越所有先前的储氢方法。硅在地球上很丰富，对人类无害-它甚至可以促进健康的皮肤，头发和指甲。硅中氢的含义是，燃料电池驱动的车辆，家庭和电子产品可以比任何其他能源更高效，更清洁。具有重要意义的是，这项技术将允许房主和企业通过使用屋顶太阳能电池板分解水来产生自己的氢气。通过将其储存为硅中的氢，一个家庭可以在一夜之间或多云的时候运行许多天。氢可以取代便携式电子产品中的电池，因此它们可以在不充电的情况下持续长达20天-远远长于电池。如果屋顶系统足够大，就可以生产燃料电池汽车所需的氢气，比如已经上市的那些。这意味着深远的影响，允许所有人在未来的所有时间内完全实现能源独立，对环境的影响最小，并且使用几乎完全可再生和易于回收的低成本资源。多孔硅易于合成，但需要催化剂才能从气态来源重新充电。催化剂的引入是至关重要的，因为它必须在空间上受到控制并定位以实现溢出到硅上和硅上。密度泛函理论研究表明这在能量上是有利的，并且一阶宏观计算表明，在8巴和250 ℃下，可以在3.5分钟内实现再充电。完全充电和完全放电的硅氢之间的总能量差是惊人的低1千卡/摩尔。能垒是强的H-H键，其主导动力学。该项目的过程是战略性地将钯原子放置在多孔硅基质上的特定位置，以便它可以介导H-H键能，并允许溢出到800 m^2/gm表面积的微孔硅上。这已经获得了专利，但从未在实验室中得到证明，这就是为什么需要NSF的资金。这项工作的另一个目标是证明使用冶金级材料代替迄今为止使用的单晶硅的低成本硅的可行性。

This STTR Phase I project will study the storage of hydrogen on a novel material produced from silicon - the same substance used to make solar panels and computer chips. This unique and patented approach has the potential to eclipse all prior methods of hydrogen storage in terms of pressure, temperature, safety, cost, and convenience. Silicon is earth-abundant and benign to humans - it is even promotes healthy skin, hair, and fingernails. The implication of hydrogen-in-silicon is that fuel cell-powered vehicles, homes, and electronics can be far more efficient and clean than any other source of energy. Of great significance is that this technology will allow homeowners and businesses to generate their own hydrogen by splitting water using rooftop solar panels. By storing this as hydrogen-in-silicon a home can be run overnight or for many days during a cloudy spell. Hydrogen can replace the batteries in portable electronics so they can last up to 20 days without a recharge - far longer than with batteries. And if the rooftop system is of sufficient size, one can produce the hydrogen needed for a fuel cell vehicle, such as those already on the market. The implications of this are far-reaching, allowing complete energy independence for all, for all time to come, with minimal environmental impact and using almost completely renewable and low-cost resources which are easy to recycle.Porous silicon is easy to synthesize but requires a catalyst to recharge from a gaseous source. The introduction of the catalyst is critical as it must be controlled spatially and positioned to effect spillover onto and off of silicon. Density Functional Theory studies show this is energetically favorable and first-order macroscopic calculations indicate that recharge can be effected in 3.5 minutes at 8 bar and 250 C. The overall energy difference between fully-charged and fully-discharged silicon-hydrogen is an amazingly low 1 kcal/mol. The energy barrier is the strong H-H bond which dominates the kinetics. The course of this project is to strategically place palladium atoms at specific sites on the matrix of porous silicon so that it can mediate the H-H bond energy and allow spillover onto the 800 m^2/gm surface area of microporous silicon. This has been patented but never demonstrated in the laboratory, which is why this funding from NSF is needed. A further goal of this work is to demonstrate the viability of low-cost silicon using metallurgical grade material instead of the single-crystal silicon which has been used to date.