NER: Hydrogen in Carbon Nanotubes - NMR and Multiscale Simulations

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

PROPOSAL NO: 0403809 INSTITUTION: MIT PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Cory , David TITLE: NER: Hydrogen in Carbon Nanotubes - NMR and Multiscale Simulations Abstract: The properties of complex material systems such as nanoscale structures are determined by the physical and chemical interactions among its constituent elements, both at the microscopic and mesoscopic scales. This project uses a unique combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments and theory to elucidate the properties of a particular nanoscale system - hydrogen gas stored within carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes have emerged as an important candidate technology for hydrogen storage in fuel calls. Understanding how the hydrogen interacts locally with the carbon framework - in essence achieving an atomic level insight into this process - would be very useful in furthering this technology. This study combines detailed NMR experiments designed to probe how the hydrogen and the carbon interact on the surfaces of the nanotube, with computer modelling at the atomic level, to correlate how the bulk properties of the hydrogen - carbon nanotube system are determined by the interactions between the two at the microscopic level.