1. Cao 0605159: Coherent Carbon Cryogel – Hydride Nanocomposite for Efficient H2 Storage Intellectual Merit: A research team at the University of Washington led by Prof. Guozhong Cao has been working on the development of coherent hybrid-carbon nancompoistes for efficient hydrogen storage. Hydrogen fuel offers many potential advantages over fossil fuels such as: generation from renewable sources, elimination of pollution in urban areas through zero point-source emissions and compatibility with fuel cells. Recent research efforts have focused on solving the problems of H2 generation and storage. Among the possible H2 storage techniques and materials, metal hydrides or chemical hydrides have the potential to store hydrogen at the necessary gravimetric and volumetric densities at ambient temperatures and pressures. However, hydrides suffer from high dehydrogenation temperature, poor reversibility, and slow kinetics. Coherent hydride-carbon nanocomposites offer a possible solution because they often exhibit significantly different physical, chemical, and thermodynamic characteristics from bulk materials.

2. Cao 0605159: Coherent Carbon Cryogel – Hydride Nanocomposite for Efficient H2 Storage Figure 1: Schematics showing porous carbon matrix (left) and coherent hybrid-carbon nanocomposites. This research has found when hybrid is embedded inside nanosized pores of carbon matrix as schematically illustrated in Figure 1 the chemical bonds of ammonia borane are significantly weakened, leading to a noticeable reduction of dehydrogenation temperature from 110  C to 85  C, and to the elimination of harmful by-product, borazine as shown in Figure 2. In addition, the dehydrogenation temperature can be tuned by controlling the pore size of the carbon matrix that are determined by synthesis and processing conditions.

3. Cao 0605159: Coherent Carbon Cryogel – Hydride Nanocomposite for Efficient H2 Storage Broader Impacts: This research project has already made the following noticeable impacts. The research has demonstrated that coherent nanocomposites offer an alternative approach to design, attain and fine tune desired thermodynamic and kinetic properties for efficient hydrogen storage. The research has generated the interest from the local industry and received financial support from the State of Washington and private industry. This project also attracted three graduate students including two women and one Hispanic to participate the research. An “energy-related materials” seminar series jointly supported by the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington, is going to start in the beginning of 2007 to educate broader graduate and undergraduate student population. A short course on “Nanostructured Materials for Efficient Energy Storage” will be offered to educate broader audience at the 2006 IEEE Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference, Oct. 23, 2006, Gyeongju, S. Korea. Figure 2: (A) DTA results, (B) H2 MS readings, and (C) the borazine MS readings of hydride and coherent hydride-carbon nanocomposite