ChemSem 06
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by brummett on Oct.26, 2009, under ChemSem 06
On Thursday October 15, 2009 Dr. Adam J. Matzger from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan came to speak about the research taking place at U of M. Dr. Adam J. Matzger is a professor at the University of Michigan in the Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering. Dr. Adam Matzger received his BA from Oberlin College in Ohio and his Ph.D was completed at Berkeley, and in 2000 he joined the staff at the University of Michigan where he has worked ever since. At the University of Michigan he is currently doing research pertaining to the development of Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Vehicles. He is attempting to find ways to transport the hydrogen more efficiently. Also, Dr. Matzger is exploring ways to capture carbon dioxide and be able to reuse the materials used to capture the CO2.
For his lecture he delivered to us he discussed in more detail the materials he was using to develop these fuel cells. Dr. Matzger used for the most part organic materials. There were several interesting things that I learned from this lecture. The first one was where I could find active carbons. The major location of these active carbons can be found in Brita Filters. I never knew that the little black balls found in the filter were a form of active carbon. Another thing that I learned was were zeolites were used. They can be found in water softeners. The third thing that I learned was about how he created crystalline structures out of porphyrin building blocks into networks of structures with large channels. These channels are where the micro porous material can attach making it an extremely stable crystalline material that can hold the hydrogen. This was the extent of my knowledge of the hydrogen cell formation.
Dr. Matzger was an excellent speaker. He had great vocal volume and was able to show some pretty interesting slides and give some information that I had not learned before. However, at first I felt like he was a little monotone and did not project enough. But as he continued through his talk he was able to make it really interesting and easy to follow. He moved fluently through his slides and was even able to field questions from the class at the end. I enjoyed his talks about the development of the hydrogen fuel cells, being from the Detroit area and growing up with the auto industry it is exciting to see the new advances being made with science.
“Designing Porous Crystal to store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide.”
by choig on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
The title of Chemistry seminar on October 15, 2009 was “Designing Porous Crystal to store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide.” The guest speaker was Adam J. Matzger who is currently a Professor of Chemistry and of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Matzger received his BA in Chemistry from Oberlin College and went on to complete his Ph.D. at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. There he conducted theoretical and experimental investigations of dehydrobezoannulenes and phenylenes. Then, he conducted postdoctoral work at California Institute of Technology investigating a novel class of chemical sensors with others.
He also received awards such as Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award, 3M Nontenured Faculty Award and the Ralph E. Power Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Now, he researches on organic materials in the solid state ranging from crystalline polymorphs to porous materials. Moreover, Discovery News introduced one aspect of Matzger’s research; hydrogen storage techniques. One-thirtieth of an ounce of the saltlike zinc oxide crystal that Matzger developed has enough surface area to cover an entire football field. Scientists believe that highly porous materials like this could store hydrogen for cars, pull planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air and remove noxious sulfur compounds from hydrocarbon fuels.
Matzger talked about how zinc-oxide crystals would have a variety of environmental industrial laboratory and consumer applications. Through his presentation, I learned that coordination polymers such as IRMO5-1 and MOF-5 are examined. Since his research focuses on designing porous crystals to store hydrogen, he found out that the MOF-177 was the best at storing hydrogen. Also, I was surprised that depending on particles’ configuration and the pressure on them can actually determine absorption. The direct relationship between the surface area and the amount of hydrogen absorption was new and interesting. Overall, it was an informative and interesting presentation and I learned new things from it. Summing the presentation in one sentence: “Porous crystals have good characteristics that can absorb gases.”
Storing H2 and Capturing CO2
by young on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
Today’s guest speaker for chemistry seminar was Adam J. Matzger. He is a professor of chemistry at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor’s degree. Also, he earned his doctorate degree at the University of California at Berkeley. While attending graduate school, he investigated theoretical and experimental properties of dehydrobenzoannulenes and phenylenes. Currently, Dr. Matzger is doing research on organic materials in the solid state ranging from crystalline polymorphs to porous materials.
Dr. Matzger presented on how to store hydrogen gas and capture carbon dioxide molecule. At first, he introduced the definition of coordination polymer. It is an assembly of porphyrin building blocks into network structures with large channels. Secondly, he explained about the ways of synthesizing coordination polymers. Lastly, he talked about applications of the products he made. Overall, it was easy to understand the concept of his research for me because he explained it using some examples we can see easily in our daily lives.
During the presentation, he said that he measured the ability of the polymer to capture hydrogen gas or carbon dioxide gas according to the pressure. I was curious about how he increased the pressure during the experiments. In addition, he used carboxylic acid groups to make a polymer structure. I was wondering the effects of using carboxylic acid group and adding more carboxylic acid groups.
Hydrogen gas is a powerful energy source. However, it is dangerous if it is not stored in a proper way. When we can store it safely, we can use it efficiently in our actual lives.
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by mastera on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
This week’s lecture was definitely informative chemical-wise. I think the thing that made it interesting was the physical data and other information that was given about the chemical compounds involved with the lecture topic. However, I was disappointed with the speaker’s somewhat political twists on the concepts that reminded me of my days at Penn State University. I believe that politics should be left completely out of anything science-related.
That said, his speaking style could have been a little bit more energetic, seeing as I was falling asleep towards the end there, and I saw that I was not alone. One thing that I learned from the lecture was that one of the chemicals, MOF-5, has a surface area around two thousand to three thousand meters squared, which is certainly impressive.
Something that I would like to know is what makes magnesium the best metal for carbon dioxide sorption. Another thing that I would like to know was what about MOF-5 made it have such a large surface area. In describing this lecture to a non-science friend, I would have to say that it was about making chemicals that capture carbon dioxide before it goes into the air.
As for the speaker, Adam J. Matzger works for the Department of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. One of the schools he attended is the University of California at Berkley, which certainly explains his adding liberal politics to elements of this lecture. I guess everybody has their faults. Finally, it was nice to end somewhat on time for this lecture.
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by stephen on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
This week’s seminar was Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide. The speaker was Adam J. Matzger. He received his BA degree in 1992 from Oberlin College, Ohio. He then got his Ph.D. from Berkeley campus of the University of California in the group of K. Peter C. Vollhardt, where he conducted theoretical and experimental investigations of dehydrobenzoannulenes and phenylenes. In 2000, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he is now Professor of Chemistry and of Macromolecular Science and Engineering.
The presentation was good and easy to follow. One of the things I learned in this seminar was that porous materials that collapse without solvent are not good. MOF-177 has a surface area of 4500 m^2/g. And UMCM-2 has a surface area of 5190m^2/g which is the highest surface area so far.
Students seemed pretty attentive during the seminar and were able to ask a lot of questions during the question period, and the speaker was able to answer all of them well. The presentation encouraged me to learn more about the subject but I don’t think I would be very interested in doing any research on it, nor would I be interested in attending the speaker’s school for graduate studies. The reason I think the presentation was interesting was because the speaker was pretty clear on what the research could be used for.
If I had to describe the presentation in one sentence it would be “designing materials to store hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide.”
STORING HYDROGEN AND CAPTURING CARBON DIOXIDE
by quines on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
The speaker this past Thursday was Adam J. Metzger, a professor and researcher from the University of Michigan. The focus on his presentation revolved around his research with coordination polymers. I was able to learn many things from his presentation primarily because of his clear and easy to understand presentation style.
He opened his presentation by giving a background on the other porous materials used in adsorption such as active carbon, silica gel, zeolites, and carbon nanotubes. He then proceeded to explain what coordination polymers were and what made them unique. I was able to learn about all the research that is going on with them as well as information about some current ones such as HKUST-1 and MOF-5. His illustrations of these really served to enhance his own research because we were given a background of understanding. For example, his emphasis on uniform pore size and internal surface area really helped me to understand when he was talking about all the UMCM series of mixed linkers.
What I really appreciated about Metzger was how he was able to present his research in such a way to keep it informative and interesting. As he described his work with mixed linkers we were able to see his goals for real world application. Since we know that H2 storage systems are significant in our search for alternative energy and that CO2 emission is also a problem for power plants, Metzger was able to highlight the importance of such research in this field which made me more compelled to listen. Another aspect which made Metzger’s presentation so fascinating was how he kept the presentation simple and understandable with his occasional explanation of graphs and data.
Overall, I would say that Metzger gave a great seminar. He was able to highlight his research and we were able to learn new information about mixed linker coordination polymers. I was able to learn some new things as well such as gas uptake capacity in weight percent depending on pressure. I was also able to understand better how surface area related to higher uptake and how micro- and mesopores play a role in the uptake. Learning about that the best ratio of linkers wasn’t the stoichiometric ratio was also interesting because he said it could be explained through statistics.
If I were to explain this lecture to my non-science friends, I would say that Metzger’s goal would be to discover new and unique kinds of porous materials called coordination polymers in the hope that it could be applied to storing hydrogen gas and capturing carbon dioxide.
Storing H2 and Capturing CO2
by Danuel on Oct.19, 2009, under ChemSem 06
This week’s seminar was about Designing Porous Crystals to store hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide as presented by Dr. Adam J. Matzger. He received his BA degree in 1992 from Oberlin College, Ohio. He then got his Ph.D. from Berkeley campus of the University of California, and is currently a proffessor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Matzger’s specific area of research is in organic synthetic chemistry.
I learned from Dr. Matzger’s presentation that H2 storage with highly porous materials can help create environmentally friendly applications. This involves hydrogen storage for cars as well as materials that pull carbon dioxide out of the air and remove sulfur compounds from hydrocarbon fuels. I believe that this is important because lowering emission gases means less air pollution, ie. acid rain and damage to our ozone layer.
Matzger also focused on developing methods of coordination copolymerization. He stated that he was inspired by the polymer industry, which mixed known polymers to create new polymers rather than starting from square one. I learned that two possible behaviors in a mixed linker system have been identified. Either a mixture of two pure components or two types of mixed components will be the result. Where mixing two polymers with different shapes was concerned called a non-isomorphic approach, it was thought that these polymers would not mix but segregate. However, that was not what the case. The polymers did indeed mix, and UMCM-1 is an example of that. Matzger and his research team noticed that they formed a microporous cage or a mesoporous cage.
Matzger also talked about fuel desulfurization. I learned that there are numerous efforts being made to reduce the amount of sulfur in fuels, and Matzger is personally looking at how benzothiophene or dibenzothiophene based isotherms have the ability to absorb sulfur. From his research, he determined that dibenzothiophene based isotherms did not have the best sulfur absorbing ability.
In conclusion, I have to say that I truly enjoyed this seminar. The information was quite relevant to daily life and Dr.Matzger’s speaking style was very relaxed and humorous. This seminar has not only helped me appreciate the research that Dr.Matzger and his team are doing, but it has also made me more environmentally conscious.
Review of Adam J. Matzger’s Storing H2 & Capturing CO2
by shieun on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
In 2006, a former U.S. vice president released a documentary film to educate the masses about the dangers of global warming. While Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is certainly not the catalyst for the popularity of “going green” today, it does demonstrate the increasing focus and public attention paid to carbon-dioxide emission levels and other actions endangering the environment, not only in the United States but worldwide.
While many of the previous speakers this year spoke a snippet on the “greenness” of their research, today’s speaker Adam J. Matzger, from the University of Michigan, presented a research with a more direct correlation to improving the environment.
Hybrid engines, combining the use of both the standard internal combustion engine and a rechargeable electric motor, are just one of the many options to driving a more environmental-friendly car. One of cleanest, cheapest options in car engines is run on hydrogen where its only waste would be water. While there is great interest in using hydrogen as a fuel source one of the obstacles that must be overcome is fuel storage. Right now, hydrogen storage is not cheap (although making hydrogen is cheap), there is no distribution, and transportation is a problem. Matzger taught us about his research on metal-organic frameworks (MOF) which attempts to solve this problem.
Metal-organic frameworks trap gases between the pores in their latticed structure; important characteristics of MOFs for practical hydrogen storage are a large surface area and uniform pore size. Under pressures higher than 1 bar, Matzger’s research team found that most existing MOFs decreased in hydrogen volume capacity. Matzger’s research team looked into ligand linkers with symmetry-inequivalence. Following the same logic of copolymer plastic manufactures (it is cheaper since the base materials are in possession), the research team is also exploring the mixing of two different MOFs to create a better performing MOF. Research produced UMCM-150, an MOF with exceptionally high surface area with tiny pores, which stores more hydrogen than any MOF seen so far. However, it is still far from operable storage of hydrogen for the public as it must be kept at a very low temperature.
This was the first time I heard of metal-organic frameworks and the application of Matzger’s research made it particularly interesting. Going over the background and basics of MOFs provided very helpful information for a newbie like me and Matzger’s presented his research with clarity and made it all quite understandable.
Laymen’s Summary of the Seminar: Metal-organic frameworks are metal ions and organic atoms/compounds with tiny holes between the structures that trap small molecules. This sponge-like ability to absorb gas makes MOFs a possibility in storing hydrogen, which can be used in hydrogen cars.
Adam Matzger and Microporous Coordination Polymers
by Clarissa on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
I found that our Chemistry Seminar speaker for October 15, 2009 was a great pick. His name was Adam J. Matzger and he talked about storing H2 and capturing CO2. I really enjoyed his lecture; it was lively, fun, and informative. I can definitely say that I learned quite a few things from this young Professor of Chemistry and of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. Matzger received his BA from Oberlin College, his Ph.D. from Berkeley Campus of the University of California, and now is a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Currently, he is conducting research on the storing and capturing of H2 and CO2 in organic materials. Matzger specifically talked about the capabilities and characteristics of crystalline polymorphs and porous materials.
To begin with, Matzger is an organic synthetic chemist. The first thing I learned is that H2 storage with highly porous materials can help create more environmentally friendly applications. One important research application involves hydrogen storage for cars as well as materials that pull carbon dioxide out of the air and remove sulfur compounds from hydrocarbon fuels. He then described for us the properties of microporous coordination polymers. This explanation was very useful because it helped us understand why he was using the microporous coordination polymer materials.
I learned that so far a lot of different members of coordination polymers have been researched. IRMO5-1 and MOF-5 is just a couple of examples of polymers examined. His research looks mostly at how much hydrogen can be stored in each of them. From his analysis, he noticed that HKUST and other similar coordinated unsaturated metals exhibited a better saturation of H2 sorption. When he took the experiment to a higher pressure, he found that the MOF-177 did the best at absorbing hydrogen. With this information, Matzger and his research group decided to try to make polymers with a higher surface area to see how they’ll do.
Matzger is also focusing on developing methods of coordination copolymerization. He was inspired by the polymer industry that mixed known polymers to create new polymers rather than starting from square one. From Matzger’s presentation, the second concept I learned is that two possible behaviors in a mixed linker system have been identified. Either a mixture of two pure components or two types of mixed components will result. Where mixing two polymers with different shapes was concerned, a non-isomorphic approach, it was thought that these polymers would not mix but segregate. However, that is not what the case. The polymers did indeed mix, and UMCM-1 is an example of that. Matzger and his research team noticed that they formed a microporous cage or a mesoporous cage.
A third thing newly learned from Matzger’s presentation is about fuel desulfurization. I never even knew that there was research being conducted in this area of environmental awareness and improvement. I learned that there is a big push to reduce the amount of sulfur in fuels and Matzger is looking at how isotherms (benzothiophene or dibenzothiophene based) abilities to absorb sulfur. From his research, he determined that dibenzothiophene based isotherms (which had the highest surface area and biggest pores) did not do the best at absorbing sulfur. So Matzger kept on working, and eventually came up with some breakthrough experiments, until they came to diesel fuel. There was a problem with diesel because it contains a lot of other compounds is its composition, and some of the polymers were not able to differentiate between the sulfur and other composites of the diesel fuel. The question was how to filter out the sulfur without taking out everything else. Activated carbon did not do with the differentiation, but the copolymers did.
I’m sure there are many reasons that Matzger can give to prove that the microporous structures he’s working with are very useful and reliable. One reason that he gave is that it is inferior to activated carbon, a substance that a lot of companies use to filter and absorb gases. If I were a company trying to absorb gases out of my products, I would go along with Matzger and see what his research has to offer, because it seems very promising.
At the end of Matzger’s lecture I asked him if he has experimented with a mixed linker system that incorporates more than two polymers. Matzger responded that he has wanted to, but hasn’t as yet because of funding to conduct the many experiments needed to confirm behavior of a three polymer mixing.
If I had to sum up Matzger’s seminar into a simple sentence, it would be that, “Microporous coordination polymers are very good absorbers of gases and present a likely chance of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released in the environment.”
The best sponges are the ones you can’t see!
by chem nerd on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
When I think of adsorbing material I imagine the job being done by something big, but what if the material being adsorbed is something not visible to the naked eye, then what? Then I would suggest taking a look at Adam J. Matzger’s Ph.D. work. Matzger’s group from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is at the front of this cutting edge science. Why? Because Matzger’s research is focused on synthesizing nanoparticle crystals that are capable of adsorbing hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and other material that molecule is tailored to.
The many innovative ways nanoparticle porous materials are able to change our lives is giving them a lot of attention from scientists all over the globe; however, it is not enough to create a porous material, it must be energy efficient, durable, and (everyone’s favorite) cheap. This is what Matzger’s group has accomplished. After reexamining existing nanoparticle porous materials through a series of tests, Matzger attempted to synthesize a new crystal through coordination polymerization, by mixing two different linker systems. He was successful and in fact has synthesized the highest surface area of any material in the world!
What is truly amazing and the most impressive bits of information I learned from his lecture were that these molecules exhibit selective ability dependent upon their configuration, that by changing the pressure one is able to adsorb and desorb gas particles, and by utilizing their recyclability and selectivity they are capable of reducing pollution by power plants and may one day power hydrogen fueled cars. Thinking about the practical uses of these molecules, I begin to question how everything would work, such as, how cars powered by hydrogen could utilize porous material effectively considering that hydrogen must be kept at very high pressures and very low temperatures, how “eco-friendly” is porous material underground, how (if at all) metals found in the earth effect the same metal found in the porous material, or at what concentration natural occurring metals in the ground would begin to effect the composition of the crystal? And more and more questions pop into my head.
Over all Matzger’s lecture was entertaining, not only was I excited by the chemistry but he was pretty animated himself, very relaxed, open to discussion throughout his presentation, and finally to top it off he had a great sense of humor! Thanks Dr. Matzger!
Storing Hydrogen and Caturing Carbon Dioxoide
by Celena on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
Adam J. Matzger spoke of storing hydrogen and capturing carbon dioxide. Matzger received his BA degree in 1992 from Oberlin College, Ohio. While working on his Ph.D., Matzger conducted theoretical and experimental investigations of dehydrobenzoannules and phenylenes. Matzger is currently researching organic materials in the solid state ranging from crystalline polymorphs to porous materials. One-thirtieth of an ounce of the saltlike zinc oxide crystal that Matzger developed has enough surface area to cover an entire football field. Scientists say that highly porous materials like this could eventually store hydrogen for cars, pull planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air and remove noxious sulfur compounds from hydrocarbon fuels.
During the presentation Matzger was loud, enthusiastic, made eye contact, and allowed questions during the presentation which kept the audience awake and interested. Some interesting facts learned were the synthesis of Mof-5 which was a crystalline high surface area material that stored hydrogen. Other fun facts were the demands for a hydrogen storage system. They must be high gravimetric and volumetric capacity, heat adsorption either too high or low would need good kinetics of uptake/release of hydrogen. The surface area was also directly related to the amount of hydrogen that was absorbed.
Hydrogen was also being used as fuel storage material, but problems arose. It was not an energy-dense fuel, and in its liquid form although its energy density increased, there was a need for low temperatures and high pressures. Other parts of the presentation included the capturing of carbon dioxoide from coal fired plants. The carbon dioxide is removed after the combustion of the fossil fuel, captured from flue gases at power stations or other large point sources. In the sorption process magnesium was the best in capturing the carbon dioxide. Sorption is a common term for absorption, in which a substance of one state is incorporated into a different state. This process is reversible and by just changing the pressure carbon dioxide can either be absorbed or desorbed. This presenter did not go over time as did previous presenters and students engaged in many questions during the question and answer period.
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by kgardner on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
Dr. Adam Matzger came from the University of Michigan to talk to us about “Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide”. Mainly he talked about creating porous materials that have the highest storage capacity for storing hydrogen or having the ability to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide yet also being reversible.
I learned quite a lot during this seminar. There has been lots of research that has gone into this already, with many compounds created. A couple examples he shared were the HKUST-1, which is a benzene tricarboxylic acid and copper, and MOF-5, which is a benzene dicarboxylic acid and zinc oxide. Some of the properties that they are trying to get with their syntheses are a uniform pore structure, crystals to keep shape without solvent, and have the ability to hold 6 gravimetric weight percent.
Some of the problems they are having with creating a material for capturing carbon dioxide is the necessity for it to be reversible. It would not be cost effective to use something that can capture carbon dioxide but could not release it. The main idea with this research is to create a material that would capture the carbon dioxide being emitted from automobile exhaust. The presentation was very interesting. The speaker did a good job at explaining the different things and had a good flow to the seminar. I would explain this to a non-scientific person by saying that it was about making porous materials for storing hydrogen or for capturing carbon dioxide.
Filtration and Storage of Gases with Microstructure Lattices
by shulla on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
This installment of ChemSem featured Adam J. Matzger of the University of Michigan. His topic involved metal organic frameworks of organic ligands forming lattice structures with metal linkages. It turns out that these lattice structures, though not surpassingly sturdy or common with long range stability, are capable of absorbing hydrogen gas in as much as 7.5 wt% and filtering everything from carbon dioxide from flue gasses to sulfur from diesel supplies.
I learned quite a variety of things from this lecture. To begin with, the construction of these metal organic frameworks seems to occur without significant synthetic difficulties. Though the structures are only a couple of millimeters in size in any one direction, they do seem to self assemble fairly consistently. Secondly, many different metals seem to work as vertex linkages in the lattice framework, magnesium is good for CO2 removal from flue gases, but nickel seems to be best for filtering ethanol. Finally, in terms of recovery of the lattice structure, the gases can be expelled simply by lowering the pressure above the material which is beneficial considering the fact that pressure swings have lower energy penalties than temperature swings for recovery.
Though it appears that the technology is still relatively distant from commercial success, the experimental potential of these metal organic frameworks seems to be well proven. It was shown that these lattices had adjustable properties making it far more versatile in the number of filtration applications. Dr. Matzger did an excellent job of describing the methods and usefulness of the research his lab is doing and kept the discussion at an intellectually educational level without his audience losing track of his topic.
October 15 Seminar
by fletchek on Oct.18, 2009, under ChemSem 06
This week’s presentation was done by Adam Matzger from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His presentation was on designing porous crystals to store hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide. Why would anyone care about hydrogen and carbon dioxide? In the case of hydrogen, it has potential as an energy source. Unfortunately, it is very expensive and there currently is no distribution or storage system for it. Still, hydrogen gas is lightweight and has a high energy density. Matzger stated that the goal was for a gas tank to store 6% weight of hydrogen, with the weight of the tank being included in the total weight.
Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) can be used to store hydrogen. At 1 bar of atmospheric pressure, the MOFs that Matzger was using all performed similarly. But, at higher pressures, the MOFs started to reveal their limits of hydrogen uptake. MOF-177 held the most hydrogen at 90 bar. This MOF had the highest surface area. MOFs with the highest surface area and pore size tend to uptake the most hydrogen. One of Matzger’s goals is to design MOFs with improved parameters in those areas.
The other aspect of an MOF is carbon dixoide intake. It is no secret that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Coal fire power plants are huge sources of carbon dioxide, and Michigan has several of them. MOF-74 and HKUSF-1 were found to be good adsorbers of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is best captured at low pressures, and it is important for the adsorption to be reversible. This is so that the MOF can be used again. MOFs are expensive to make, and being able to use them multiple times will save money.
I felt that this presentation was a very interesting one. The most interesting part for me was the applications of MOFs. They may end up being instrumental in providing a new, clean energy source. And, they have potential to reduce pollution by carbon dioxide. Some of the MOFs themselves have interesting properties. For example, one small gram of UMCM-2 has the same surface area of a football field, if grass is not included. That was one thing I learned from this presentation. Another thing I learned was about carbon dioxide capture and the importance of having reversible absorptions in order to reuse the MOFs. One thing I don’t understand is how the MOFs are named. Do the numbers indicate the order in which the MOFs were made? Also, if the MOFs can’t be used for hydrogen or carbon dioxide capture, can there be other uses for them?
The speaker conducted himself very well. Although there weren’t very many questions asked, Matzger gave good answers to the questions that were asked. If I had to sum up this presentation for a layperson, I would say that molecules are being designed to store hydrogen as fuel and to trap carbon dioxide to reduce pollution.
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by ckrym on Oct.16, 2009, under ChemSem 06
Chemistry Seminar on October 15, 2009 was presented by Dr. Adam J. Matzger. Dr. Matzger is currently a professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. His presentation was on “Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide.” This presentation was very detailed but interesting. The speaker clearly defined his objectives and spoke plainly and confidently about his research. I particularly enjoyed the part of this presentation that applied to hydrogen research for automobiles. This topic is something you see advertised often by automotive dealerships but rarely are you able to be informed about the research behind this undertaking on such a detailed level.
From this presentation I learned that four types of porous material that can be used in adsorption are silica gel, active carbon, zeolites and carbon nanotubes. The first two are the most common materials used. I was interested to hear that the problem with developing hydrogen automobiles is not so much that the hydrogen is too expensive, but that there is currently no practical way to store and transport the hydrogen. Dr. Matzger informed us that 5200 meters squared per gram is the highest surface area known to exist for a single crystal structure at this time. That size spread out is about the size of a football field. I also learned that most often segregation of molecules occurs and this is the reason you recrystallize, but it is possible for cocrystallization to occur as well.
In telling family and friends about this presentation I would say that Dr. Matzger discussed creating tiny cage like crystal structures to trap molecules like carbon dioxide.
Designing Porous Crystals to Store Hydrogen and Capture Carbon Dioxide
by jongho on Oct.15, 2009, under ChemSem 06
Adam J. Matzger is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and his presentation was mostly over my head and hard for me to understand the concepts in detail. I believe his presentation could have been more informative to us, if he took more time to explain things that are new to us.
Three new things I learned included 1) porous materials include zeolites, active carbon, carbon nanotubes, and silica gel, 2) microporous coordination polymers have very high surface areas and uniform pore sizes, and it is thermally stable, and 3) Coal-fired power plants are the number one source of carbon dioxide. Also, I learned that two kinds of mixed linker system include segregation (separation by the same kind) and cocrystallization (mixed separation). Learning about how hard it is to transport hydrogen because of its high energy density. One of the questions I had during his presentations was “how many UMCMs are out there?”
I thought this presentation was overall pretty interesting, because his presentation topic, storing hydrogen and capturing carbon dioxide, was interesting to me, as a chemistry major. But I had hard time understanding his presentation in depth, because most of the materials or concepts he went over were over my head, and there was really not enough time for him to go over his presentation in much detail.
I would describe the presentation to my ‘non-science’ friend or family as this: “Adam J. Matzger’s interesting presentation about storing hydrogen and capturing carbon dioxide provided basic information about his research but not in full detail.
Tell A Friend
