Polymers to be mad einto Hydrogen storage tanks?

Research Highlights

Nature 439, 894-895 (23 February 2006) | doi:10.1038/439894a

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Chemistry: Fantastic plastic

Angew. Chem. Int. Edn doi:10.1002/anie.200504241 (2006)

Hydrogen cars need a safe and efficient way of storing the combustible gas. Could polymers be the answer?

Organic polymers are generally too floppy to form rigid, porous structures. But a recently reported class of organic polymer has molecules that contain bulky segments, opening up spaces in their packing. Neil McKeown of Cardiff University, UK, Peter Budd of the University of Manchester, UK, and their colleagues have now shown that such polymers can trap up to 1.7% of their own mass in hydrogen at -196 °C.

That's still a long way from the US Department of Energy's goal to have a system that can store 6% hydrogen (by mass) by 2010. But organic polymers have great potential for structural fine-tuning, the team argues.