Abstract
The South African energy landscape is dominated by carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting coal combustion which is currently plentiful and cheap however because of its finite nature, it will soon diminish. With the current growing population and increasing energy need, research scientists all over the world are continuously working towards shifting to cleaner renewable energy sources of which hydrogen (H2) is a promising candidate. Hydrogen has a high gravimetric energy density than any other fuel and its combustion in pure oxygen only produces water vapour and heat. However, since it is very light and as a result has a low volumetric energy density, its storage is very difficult. Generally, adsorbents materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) such as Materials Institute Lavoisier (MIL-101(Cr)) and Universitetet i Oslo (UiO-66(Zr)) as well as porous carbons such as zeolite templated carbon (ZTC) have been well investigated for H2 storage due to their unique properties such as extremely high surface areas and ultrahigh porosities. However, their great potential in H2 storage applications is limited by their lack of immediate processability, because they are obtained as fine powders in their as-synthesised form. For these materials to gain practical applications in H2 storage they must be shaped into mechanically stable and easy to handle bodies like monoliths. The process of shaping MOFs and carbon powders often includes the use of various non-porous polymers and inorganic materials as binders and that often results in pore-blocking effects and low H2 uptake...
Ph.D. (Chemistry)