Feasibility of hydrogen storage and sensing on novel TiO2 nanotube materials

化石燃料消耗和绿色房屋气体排放问题促使人们寻找具有零碳循环的替代能源。氢被广泛认为是未来主要的能量载体（或“能量载体”），通过利用太阳能转换或通过使用可再生烃原料，能够完全拒绝化石燃料。然而，氢作为能量载体的成功应用取决于与氢基础设施有关的几个问题的解决，即储存和运输。目前正在研究几种储氢方法，(i)氢在具有大表面积的固体上的吸附，（ii）通过金属氧化物储氢，（iii）分子氢在笼形水合物中的嵌入。这些技术的潜在适用性取决于储存的氢的量以及其释放和材料再生的难易程度。该研究旨在研究在一种新型材料-TiO 2纳米管中以分子形式储存氢的可行性。这些材料也可用作氢传感器。通过结合吸附分析、纳米操作和计算技术，该提案将证明这些新材料是否在未来的关键技术之一中具有真实的前景。

The problems of fossil fuel consumption and green house gas emissions stimulated the search for alternative sources of energy with a zero carbon cycle. Hydrogen is widely believed to be a major future energy carrier (or 'energy vector'), enabling complete rejection of fossil fuels either by utilizing solar energy conversion or by using renewable hydrocarbon feedstocks. However, successful applications of hydrogen as an energy carrier depend on the resolution of several problems relating to the hydrogen infrastructure, namely storage and transportation. Several approaches for hydrogen storage are being investigated e.g., (i) adsorption of hydrogen on solids with large surface area, (ii) hydrogen storage by metal hydrides, (iii) intercalation of molecular hydrogen in clathrate hydrates. The potential applicability of these techniques depends on the amount of stored hydrogen as well as the ease of its release and material re-generation. The proposed study aims at investigating the feasibility of storing hydrogen in the molecular form within a novel material - TiO2 nanotubes. These materials may also be useful as hydrogen sensors. Using a combination of sorption analysis, nano-manipulation and computational techniques the proposal will prove whether these new materials hold real promise in one of the key future technologies.