Research being carried out by Professors Schröder, Champness and Blake from the School of Chemistry into the development of new materials for hydrogen storage, for use in mobile applications, has been highlighted by Diamond in their 2009 report. Accurate structural data are essential to understanding the properties of these new metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): Diamond Light Source, the new UK synchrotron near Didcot in Oxfordshire, provides the high-intensity X-rays necessary for looking at tiny single crystals of MOFs. The structural information obtained on Beamline I19 at Diamond has proven to be of exceptionally high quality, leading to significant improvements in the design of MOFs capable of storing compressed hydrogen at relatively low pressures.
In the Diamond Annual Report, Professor Sandy Blake, who leads the structural characterisation studies at Diamond, commented:
"Hydrogen storage is a real race against nature. Having access to the right tools to carry out research is a vital part of any scientific endeavour. Our metal-organic frameworks for hydrogen storage have achieved unprecedented capacities. We are pleased with progress made so far in our ability to characterise them and indeed we are encouraged by recent findings obtained with the help of Diamond."
The team from Nottingham have recently been awarded further beamtime at Diamond to continue and extend their work on MOFs.
Posted on Friday 6th November 2009