Investigators

Wendy Mao, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University

Objective

A major barrier to the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is finding a practical hydrogen storage material for mobile applications. Extreme environments provide a broader space to search for phases with desirable properties. For example, one promising compound discovered at high pressure is tetrahydrogen-methane (CH₄(H₂)₄), which contains 33.4 wt% molecular hydrogen, not including the hydrogen in the methane itself. This exploratory activity uses a closely coupled experimental and theoretical approach to identify several promising hydrogen-rich, crystalline solids, determine their structures, and then attempt to stabilize these phases near ambient conditions (e.g. by the addition of chemical promoters). The goal of this effort is to ultimately provide guidance in developing improved hydrogen storage materials.

Progress Report

• 2010 Progress Report (PDF)

Publications

• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G.-J. Witkamp, and W. L. Mao. “Novel interactions in hydrogen-rich van der Waals compound CH₄(H₂)₄,” JACS (2010).

Presentations

• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G. J. Witkamp, and W. L. Mao. “Novel High Capacity Hydrogen Storage Materials Based on Tetrahydrogenmethane,” Proceedings of the AIChE Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, November 8-13, 2009.
• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G. J. Witkamp, W. L. Mao. “Hydrogen Storage in Novel High Capacity Crystalline Molecular Materials,” Proceedings of the VIII Iberoamerican Conference on Phase Equilibria and Fluid Properties for Process Design, Praia da Rocha, Portugal, October 17-21, 2009.
• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G. J. Witkamp, and W. L. Mao. “Extremely High Capacity Hydrogen Storage in Novel Crystalline Molecular Materials,” Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium of Molecular Thermo-dynamics & Molecular Simulation (MTMS), Kanazawa, Japan, invited, October 2-5 2009.
• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G. J. Witkamp, and W. L. Mao. “Novel Hydrogen-rich Crystalline Compounds for Hydrogen Storage,” Proceedings of Foundations of Molecular Modeling and Simulation (FOMMS), Blaine, WA, July 12-16, 2009.
• Kroon, M. C., H. Docherty, P. T. Cummings, C. J. Peters, G. J. Witkamp, and W. L. Mao. “Tetrahydrogenmethane –A Novel High Capacity Hydrogen Storage Material,” Proceedings of the 17th Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, Boulder, CO, invited, June 21-26, 2009.