Tuneable mesoporous silica material for hydrogen storage application via nano-confined clathrate hydrate construction

Radu George Ciocarlan; Judit Farrando-Perez; Daniel Arenas-Esteban; Maarten Houlleberghs; Luke L. Daemen; Yongqiang Cheng; Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta; Eric Breynaert; Johan Martens; Sara Bals; Joaquin Silvestre-Albero; Pegie Cool

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-52893-3

Tuneable mesoporous silica material for hydrogen storage application via nano-confined clathrate hydrate construction

Radu George Ciocarlan, Judit Farrando-Perez, Daniel Arenas-Esteban, Maarten Houlleberghs, Luke L. Daemen, Yongqiang Cheng, Anibal J. Ramirez-Cuesta, Eric Breynaert, Johan Martens, Sara Bals, Joaquin Silvestre-Albero, Pegie Cool

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Safe storage and utilisation of hydrogen is an ongoing area of research, showing potential to enable hydrogen becoming an effective fuel, substituting current carbon-based sources. Hydrogen storage is associated with a high energy cost due to its low density and boiling point, which drives a high price. Clathrates (gas hydrates) are water-based (ice-like) structures incorporating small non-polar compounds such as H₂ in cages formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. Since only water is required to construct the cages, clathrates have been identified as a potential solution for safe storage of hydrogen. In bulk, pure hydrogen clathrate (H₂O-H₂) only forms in harsh conditions, but confined in nanospaces the properties of water are altered and hydrogen storage at mild pressure and temperature could become possible. Here, specifically a hydrophobic mesoporous silica is proposed as a host material, providing a suitable nano-confinement for ice-like clathrate hydrate. The hybrid silica material shows an important decrease of the pressure required for clathrate formation (approx. 20%) compared to the pure H₂O-H₂ system. In-situ inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and neutron diffraction (ND) provided unique insights into the interaction of hydrogen with the complex surface of the hybrid material and demonstrated the stability of nano-confined hydrogen clathrate hydrate.

Original language	English
Article number	8697
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52893-3
State	Published - Dec 2024
Externally published	Yes

Funding

R.-G.C., D A.-E., J.M., S.B. and P.C. acknowledge VLAIO for Moonshot funding (ARCLATH, nr. HBC.2019.0110, ARCLATH2 and nr. HBC.2021.0254). J.S.A. would like to acknowledge financial support from MINECO (PID2019-108453GB-C21), and Conselleria de Innovaci\u00F3n, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital (Project CIPROM/2021/022). A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (project IPTS-29742.1). NMRCoRe acknowledges the Flemish government, department EWI for financial support as International Research Infrastructure (I001321N: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Platform for Molecular Water Research).

Funders	Funder number
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41467-024-52893-3

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Ciocarlan, R. G., Farrando-Perez, J., Arenas-Esteban, D., Houlleberghs, M., Daemen, L. L., Cheng, Y., Ramirez-Cuesta, A. J., Breynaert, E., Martens, J., Bals, S., Silvestre-Albero, J., & Cool, P. (2024). Tuneable mesoporous silica material for hydrogen storage application via nano-confined clathrate hydrate construction. Nature Communications, 15(1), Article 8697. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52893-3

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abstract = "Safe storage and utilisation of hydrogen is an ongoing area of research, showing potential to enable hydrogen becoming an effective fuel, substituting current carbon-based sources. Hydrogen storage is associated with a high energy cost due to its low density and boiling point, which drives a high price. Clathrates (gas hydrates) are water-based (ice-like) structures incorporating small non-polar compounds such as H2 in cages formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. Since only water is required to construct the cages, clathrates have been identified as a potential solution for safe storage of hydrogen. In bulk, pure hydrogen clathrate (H2O-H2) only forms in harsh conditions, but confined in nanospaces the properties of water are altered and hydrogen storage at mild pressure and temperature could become possible. Here, specifically a hydrophobic mesoporous silica is proposed as a host material, providing a suitable nano-confinement for ice-like clathrate hydrate. The hybrid silica material shows an important decrease of the pressure required for clathrate formation (approx. 20%) compared to the pure H2O-H2 system. In-situ inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and neutron diffraction (ND) provided unique insights into the interaction of hydrogen with the complex surface of the hybrid material and demonstrated the stability of nano-confined hydrogen clathrate hydrate.",

author = "Ciocarlan, {Radu George} and Judit Farrando-Perez and Daniel Arenas-Esteban and Maarten Houlleberghs and Daemen, {Luke L.} and Yongqiang Cheng and Ramirez-Cuesta, {Anibal J.} and Eric Breynaert and Johan Martens and Sara Bals and Joaquin Silvestre-Albero and Pegie Cool",

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Ciocarlan, RG, Farrando-Perez, J, Arenas-Esteban, D, Houlleberghs, M, Daemen, LL, Cheng, Y , Ramirez-Cuesta, AJ, Breynaert, E, Martens, J, Bals, S, Silvestre-Albero, J & Cool, P 2024, 'Tuneable mesoporous silica material for hydrogen storage application via nano-confined clathrate hydrate construction', Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 8697. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52893-3

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AU - Ciocarlan, Radu George

AU - Farrando-Perez, Judit

AU - Arenas-Esteban, Daniel

AU - Houlleberghs, Maarten

AU - Daemen, Luke L.

AU - Cheng, Yongqiang

AU - Ramirez-Cuesta, Anibal J.

AU - Breynaert, Eric

AU - Martens, Johan

AU - Bals, Sara

AU - Silvestre-Albero, Joaquin

AU - Cool, Pegie

PY - 2024/12

Y1 - 2024/12

N2 - Safe storage and utilisation of hydrogen is an ongoing area of research, showing potential to enable hydrogen becoming an effective fuel, substituting current carbon-based sources. Hydrogen storage is associated with a high energy cost due to its low density and boiling point, which drives a high price. Clathrates (gas hydrates) are water-based (ice-like) structures incorporating small non-polar compounds such as H2 in cages formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. Since only water is required to construct the cages, clathrates have been identified as a potential solution for safe storage of hydrogen. In bulk, pure hydrogen clathrate (H2O-H2) only forms in harsh conditions, but confined in nanospaces the properties of water are altered and hydrogen storage at mild pressure and temperature could become possible. Here, specifically a hydrophobic mesoporous silica is proposed as a host material, providing a suitable nano-confinement for ice-like clathrate hydrate. The hybrid silica material shows an important decrease of the pressure required for clathrate formation (approx. 20%) compared to the pure H2O-H2 system. In-situ inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and neutron diffraction (ND) provided unique insights into the interaction of hydrogen with the complex surface of the hybrid material and demonstrated the stability of nano-confined hydrogen clathrate hydrate.

AB - Safe storage and utilisation of hydrogen is an ongoing area of research, showing potential to enable hydrogen becoming an effective fuel, substituting current carbon-based sources. Hydrogen storage is associated with a high energy cost due to its low density and boiling point, which drives a high price. Clathrates (gas hydrates) are water-based (ice-like) structures incorporating small non-polar compounds such as H2 in cages formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. Since only water is required to construct the cages, clathrates have been identified as a potential solution for safe storage of hydrogen. In bulk, pure hydrogen clathrate (H2O-H2) only forms in harsh conditions, but confined in nanospaces the properties of water are altered and hydrogen storage at mild pressure and temperature could become possible. Here, specifically a hydrophobic mesoporous silica is proposed as a host material, providing a suitable nano-confinement for ice-like clathrate hydrate. The hybrid silica material shows an important decrease of the pressure required for clathrate formation (approx. 20%) compared to the pure H2O-H2 system. In-situ inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and neutron diffraction (ND) provided unique insights into the interaction of hydrogen with the complex surface of the hybrid material and demonstrated the stability of nano-confined hydrogen clathrate hydrate.

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ER -

Tuneable mesoporous silica material for hydrogen storage application via nano-confined clathrate hydrate construction

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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