Laura Regli
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Jenny G. Vitillo
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Donato Cocina
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Silvia Bordiga
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Carlo Lamberti
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Giuseppe Spoto
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Gabriele Ricchiardi
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
Adriano Zecchina
Dipartimento di Chimica IFM NIS Centre of Excellence, Università di Torino Via P. Giuria 7, Torino, Italy
One of the main concerns about a hydrogen-based energy
economy is the efficient storage and transport of this highly
flammable gas. Many strategies have been followed or
suggested in recent years to solve this problem. The most
important ones are: 1) storage in metals and alloys; 2) storage
in complex hydrides (alanates, borides); 3) storage by trapping
in clathrates (ice and others); 4) storage in microporous
materials (carbons, zeolitic materials, metal-organic
frameworks, polymers) In this work we have focused our
attention on microporous materials, where the crucial point is
the strength of the interaction between the molecular hydrogen
and the internal surfaces of micropores and/ or of cages of
entrapping materials. It is known from fundamental studies that
H2 strongly interacts with ions in the gas but that the presence
of counterions decreases the interaction energy substantially.
The most prominent class of microporous materials, which
contains isolated and exposed cations, are zeolites and
zeotypes: ideal systems to investigate the interaction of H2 with
both dispersive and electrostatic forces.
So, even if they are not sufficiently light to represent the
final solution to H2 storage, the availability of a large variety of
frameworks and chemical compositions combined with low
cost and superior mechanical and thermal stabilities increases
the interest in these materials. In this work we have studied in
detail, by means of volumetric and spectroscopic
measurements, zeolites with CHA topology (as they are
characterized by a strong acidity and by a big surface area). The
results have been compared with those obtained for MOF-5, a
well known Metal-Organic Framework, indicated as a very
good material for molecular hydrogen storage.