MOF materials could make hydrogen fuel more practical

The US Department of Energy recently awarded Berkeley Laboratory a three-year, $2.1m (£1.3m) grant for the project, which will also include contributions from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and General Motors (GM).

‘We’re working on materials called metal-organic frameworks to increase the capacity of hydrogen gas in a pressure cylinder, which would be the fuel tank,’ said Jeffrey Long, a Berkeley scientist who co-leads the project along with Berkeley chemist Martin Head-Gordon. ‘With these materials, we’re working on storing the hydrogen without the use of very high pressures, which will be safer, more efficient and without the significant compression energy losses.’

According to the Berkeley team, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are three-dimensional sponge-like framework structures that are composed primarily of carbon atoms and extremely lightweight.

‘What’s very special about these materials is that you can use synthetic chemistry to modify the surfaces within the materials and make it attractive for hydrogen to stick on the surface,’ Long explained.