Potential Materials for Hydrogen Storage. Synthesis of Building Blocks for New Metal – Organic Frameworks

Potential Materials for Hydrogen Storage. Synthesis of Building Blocks for New Metal – Organic Frameworks

As reserves of fossil fuel become depleted the need for alternative sources of energy grow increasingly more important. The use of hydrogen gas as a fuel is one potential alternative energy source. However gases such as hydrogen are difficult to store and transport because even small amounts require a proportionately large amount of space. One way to combat this problem may be to create porous materials which may absorb large quantities of gas for storage in a much smaller space. MOF (metal-organic- framework) compounds have been demonstrated to have great potential as candidates for gas storage. MOF compounds are composed of building blocks linked together to form a framework with holes, where the hydrogen molecules can be stored. The building blocks are composed or organic molecules linked to metal atoms. Due to the ease of structural manipulation and predictability of void size, we are studying various metal complexes of BAII’s (bis arylimino isoindolines). X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, melting point determination, elemental analysis, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have been used to study the compounds. Specifically, here is the result for a copper complex with a particular BAII. This system has been shown to result in a molecular organic framework (MOF).