When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
There are some things The Container Store just doesn’t have a solution for and one of them is hydrogen storage. For years, scientists have been grappling with the problem of storing hydrogen, a clean energy source that promises to wean us off fossil fuels.
But in a recent paper published in Nature Materials, Jeff Urban‘s inorganic nanostructures team at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) described a new and improved storage material for hydrogen. It consists of tiny particles of magnesium metal that measure on the nanoscale (one billionth of a meter), strewn around in a matrix made of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), a polymer that’s related to Plexiglas.
Hydrogen is thought to be a clean fuel because it won’t emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It only produces water when combusted and hardly weighs anything. Hydrogen is also one of the most abundant elements on earth and can be found in several forms, such as water, biomass, and organic matter.
But, as always, there’s a catch. Hydrogen must be safely and densely stored but also be easily accessible for it to be an efficient fuel. Materials that can overcome these challenges of storage and accessibility aren’t yet available so the technology has lagged behind other fossil fuel alternatives.
Researchers have recently tried to tackle the issues of storage and accessibility by using various materials. They’ve tried scaffolds made of metals and organic molecules, polymers riddled with tiny holes, and some carbon-based materials. But these approaches only trapped small amounts of hydrogen and demanded extreme heating or cooling, which didn’t really help with energy efficiency.
So Urban and colleagues came up with a novel material; they made it out of metallic magnesium nanocrystals that were held in a polymer matrix of PMMA. The polymer was selective for hydrogen gas and blocked out oxygen and water vapor. This way, polymer protected the nanocrystals from oxidation so that they would always be ready to absorb and release hydrogen and not degrade with use.
The flexible and pliant metal-polymer material was stable in air and didn’t fall apart, an important consideration for something that should act as a fuel container. The material captured more hydrogen than previous approaches.
As outreach coordinator and external relations expert at the Berkeley Lab News Center, Aditi Rio bid explains in a press release that the work is “a major breakthrough in materials design for hydrogen storage, batteries, and fuel cells.”
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