Scientific News: Boron Nitride & Graphene Mixture May Be Suitable For Next-Generation Green Cars
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Update time : 2019-06-18 14:59:43
The scientific community has been long time interested in boron nitride because of its unique properties - sturdy, ultra-thin, transparent, insulating, lightweight and thermally conductive. The boron nitride is an ideal material for a variety of researchers.
According to scientists at Rice University, a graphene layer separated by boron nitride nanotube columns may be a suitable material for storing hydrogen fuel in automobiles.
The Department of Energy has set the benchmark for storage materials, making hydrogen a practical fuel for light vehicles. Materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari from Rice Lab determined in a new computational study that pillaredboron nitride and graphene might be a candidate.
Shahsavari's laboratory has determined the elastic and elastic columnar graphene structure by computer model, and later processed theboron nitride nanotubes into a mixture to simulate a unique three-dimensional structure. (A sample of boron nitride nanotubes seamlessly bonded to graphene has been prepared.)
Just as the pillars in the building allow people to make room between the floors, the pillars in the boron nitride graphene provide space for the hydrogen atoms. The challenge is to get them into and keep enough and exit as needed.
In the latest molecular dynamics simulations, the researchers found that pillared graphene or pillared boron nitride graphene provides a rich surface area (about 2,547 square meters per square meter) and good recyclability under ambient conditions. Their model shows that adding oxygen or lithium to the material will make them better combined with hydrogen.
They focused their simulations on four variants: a pillared structure of boron nitride or a pillared boron nitride graphene doped with oxygen or lithium.
Oxygen-doped boron nitride graphene proved to be the best at room temperature and ambient pressure, weighing 11.6% by weight (its weight capacity) and about 60 g/L (volume capacity); it is easy Defeat competitive technologies such as porous boron nitride, metal oxide skeletons and carbon nanotubes.
The hydrogen weight of the material was 14.77% in cold weather of -321 degrees Fahrenheit.
The US Department of Energy's current economic storage media target is to store more than 5.5% by weight and 40 grams per liter of hydrogen under moderate conditions. The ultimate goal is 7.5% by weight and 70 grams per liter.
Shahsavari said that due to the weak force of van der Waals, hydrogen atoms are adsorbed on undoped pillared boron nitride graphene. When the material is doped with oxygen, the atoms strongly bind to the mixture and produce a better surface for the incoming hydrogen, which Shahsavari says may be transported under pressure and withdrawn upon pressure release.
"Because of the nature of the charge and its interaction, the addition of oxygen to the substrate gives us a good bond," he said. “Oxygen and hydrogen are known to have good chemical affinity.”
Shahsavari said that the polarization properties of boron nitride combined with graphene and the electron mobility of graphene itself make the material highly tunable in applications.
“What we are looking for is the best point,” says Shahsavari, which describes the ideal conditions, the balance between surface area and weight of the material, as well as operating temperature and pressure. “This can only be done through computational modeling, because we can test many changes very quickly. It takes a few months for the experimenter to complete the work in just a few days.”
He said that these structures should be strong enough to easily exceed the requirements of the Department of Energy, that is, the hydrogen fuel tank can withstand 1,500 charge and discharge cycles.
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