In-situ neutron imaging of hydrogenous fuels in combustion generated porous carbons under dynamic and steady state pressure conditions

Frederik Ossler, Louis J. Santodonato, Hassina Z. Bilheux

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    5 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    We report results from experiments where we characterize the surface properties of soot particles interacting with high-pressure methane. We find considerable differences in behavior of the soot material between static and dynamic pressure conditions that can be explained by multiscale correlations in the dynamics, from the micro to macro of the porous fractal-like carbon matrix. The measurements were possible utilizing cold neutron imaging of methane mixed with combustion generated carbon (soot) inside steel cells. The studies were performed under static and dynamic pressure conditions in the range 10–90 bar, and are of interest for applications of energy storage of hydrogenous fuels. The very high cross sections for neutrons compared to hard X-ray photons, enabled us to find considerable amounts of native hydrogen in the soot and to see and quantify the presence of hydrogen atoms in the carbon soot matrix under different pressure conditions. This work lays the base for more detailed in-situ investigations on the interaction of porous carbon materials with hydrogen in practical environments for hydrogen and methane storage.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)766-776
    Number of pages11
    JournalCarbon
    Volume116
    DOIs
    StatePublished - May 1 2017

    Funding

    We greatly acknowledge Rutger Lorensson for his contribution to the cell developments. We are grateful for the support by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Karren L. More and Ilia Ivanov in particular for sample analysis utilizing HRTEM, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. We also thank Anders Engdahl at beamline D7, MAX-lab for the support during the FT-IR-TM measurements and Crispin Hetherington for the EDX measurements at the National Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy (nCHREM), Lund, Sweden. We are also very grateful for the helium pycnometry measurements by Nidia C. Gallego and co-workers. A portion of this research at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. The HRTEM, XPS and Raman measurements were performed at the CNMS, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Finally, we acknowledge the support by Lund Laser Centre (LLC), and the Centre for Combustion Science and Technology (CECOST). This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, User Facilities, under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.

    Keywords

    • Adsorption
    • High pressure
    • In-situ measurements
    • Methane
    • Neutron radiography
    • Pressure
    • Soot

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