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Title: DOE/GO/15075-MacDiarmid-Wang Final Technical Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/918834· OSTI ID:918834

Since Cho et al. reported up to ~8 wt% room-temperature hydrogen adsorption in HCl-treated polyaniline and polypyrrole [1], the research on the interactions between hydrogen and conducting polymers has become an area of special interest in the hydrogen economy community. However, later studies on hydrogen sorption using conducting polymers gave controversial results, which showed either much lower H2 uptake [2] or no H2 uptake at all [3]. As conducting polymers possess some unique “unconventional” and complex characteristics [4], it is highly likely that the controversial results could be attributed to the variation in material characteristics caused by “ambiguous” processing/handling procedures employed in H2 uptake studies involving conducting polymers. In order to determine whether conducting polymers can be developed into a new type of high-performance media for hydrogen storage applications, the goals of the project were to (i) confirm the brief report by Cho et al. [1] that ~8 wt% hydrogen gas storage in doped (metallic) forms of organic conducting polymers (“synthetic metals”), polyaniline and polypyrrole, can be attained, (ii) determine the optimum polymer preparative methods, chemical composition, polymer electrode potential, polymer crystallinity and morphology to give quantitative optimum conditions of hydrogen gas adsorption and desorption and (iii) investigate hydrogen storage by the many known types of organic conducting polymers in their semiconducting and, metallic forms, and in selected oxidation states.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
DOE Contract Number:
FC36-05GO15075
OSTI ID:
918834
Report Number(s):
DOE/GO/15075-MacDiarmid-Wang Final Technical Report; GO15075
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English